MOORE:

Good morning. This is Kate Moore for the National Park Service. Today is the Fourth of July, 1994, and I'm in Rock Springs, Wyoming at the home of Pauline Kauchich who came to the United States . . .

KAUCHICH:

What? Pauline what?

MOORE:

Kauchich.

KAUCHICH:

Kauchich, yeah.

MOORE:

Kauchich. Who came to the United States on April 6, 1921, when she was eighteen years old. All right. Would you please begin by giving us your full name and date of birth.

KAUCHICH:

What do you mean?

MOORE:

Your . . .

KAUCHICH:

Single, when I was? Mardelak. Appolonia Mardelak. See, they, what it was, am I ruining anything?

MOORE:

Oh, no, you're fine.

KAUCHICH:

When I came here, when we were neighbors down on Ninth Street, and Mr. Kopiak, I don't know if you know any Kopiaks, he come out from the house, and I was neighbor. I didn't even think, and he hollered, "Hi, Pauline!" That's why I got . . .

MOORE:

That's how you got "Pauline?"

MOORE:

Now I'm Pauline. I liked that better than Appolonia, because Appolonia is a French name.

MOORE:

So it was Appolonia, and what was your maiden name?

KAUCHICH:

Mardelak.

MOORE:

Could you spell that? Can you spell that, Mardelak?

KAUCHICH:

( she laughs ) I have to think. M-A, M-A-R-D-E-L-A-K.

MOORE:

Mardelak. Okay. Now, what was your birthday again? What is your birthday?

KAUCHICH:

February 7th.

MOORE:

1903?

KAUCHICH:

Yeah.

MOORE:

And what was the name of the town that you were born in?

KAUCHICH:

Skofja Loka.

MOORE:

Skofja Loka. Could you spell that, please?

KAUCHICH:

Skofja Loka, well, you looked at it!

MOORE:

S-K-O-F-J-A L-O-K-A. Okay. And what size town was Skofja Loka?

KAUCHICH:

Well, what I was reading today, that it was more than I ever thought you know. But now it's, see, when I came here, here was nothing but sage brush, no trees or anything, 1921. It was just the sage brush and that. And in my country was a small town too, but then my country is all green. They don't use no hoses or anything. Everything grows without being watered. And I was just reading, ( referring to her dog ) My dog has gotten out in the door. ( she laughs ) I was just reading today that it's, how difference it is than how it was in my town.

MOORE:

So it was a small town, actually.

KAUCHICH:

Yeah, but they, I don't know how to say it. If the person isn't enough to think about it, and they're going to honor the person, even if he doesn't get the job or anything, or nationality or anything, they honor the person. That's what it was, from the town, the same thing.

MOORE:

Well, what was the town . . .

KAUCHICH:

It was counting more because it was, when they were, oh, I cry very easily, if I tell you that. ( she pauses, looking at something ) Oh, there is my stepmother.

MOORE:

Hmm. Oh, that's good.

KAUCHICH:

See what, what can I tell you? Oh, I cry . . .

MOORE:

That's all right. So you say that they counted people whether they worked or not.

KAUCHICH:

Huh?

MOORE:

You said they counted or honored people.

KAUCHICH:

Well, depends, you know, how it was.

MOORE:

The counting, right, in the population.

KAUCHICH:

Yeah.

MOORE:

What did the town look like? You said it was green.

KAUCHICH:

I'm telling you one thing. When I come here and my home town and Rock Spring, it looked the same. Except that in my country was everything green, and here was everything dusty and dry.

MOORE:

Uh-huh. So there were mountains in Skofja Loka.

KAUCHICH:

Yes. Yes, it's close, just like here.

MOORE:

And what was the major industry in your, in Skofja Loka?

KAUCHICH:

They had the, it was factory, a factory right there. This is the bridge I fell off. ( referring to a photograph ) ( she laughs )

MOORE:

What type of factory was it?

KAUCHICH:

I think, I don't know what they really did.

MOORE:

Besides the factory, what else did people do?

KAUCHICH:

Hmm?

MOORE:

Besides the factory . . .

KAUCHICH:

They were working in the factory, and my dad didn't want to work in the factory. He says, "That's all it is is gossip."

MOORE:

All it is is gossip? ( Mrs. Kauchich laughs ) So what did your dad do, then? What did he . . .

KAUCHICH:

My dad was a jack-of-all-trades.

MOORE:

A jack-of-all-trades.

KAUCHICH:

And he was sometimes so busy that he'd say, "I only got two hands. I only got two hands, and the people want me to work all the time." You know? ( she laughs ) He complain.

MOORE:

What was your father's name?

KAUCHICH:

Frank.

MOORE:

Frank. And he was a jack-of-all-trades. What were some of the jobs that he did, what type?

KAUCHICH:

Well, I can't tell you really the town.

MOORE:

That's okay. That's all right.

KAUCHICH:

That he was everything, he was working for the mayor, take the adopted children someplace. And then he was working, to say just anything, anything he was working. He went to work in a butcher shop. I mean, the people, like, they had cafes, you know. And over there they didn't have no, at that time, freezers or anything, just the coolers. And my dad went to work there, and I remember when he was, I remember that what I think so many times. When he came home he went to bed, of course. Over there, when they were through working, they cook the garlic sausage, fry them, you know, and give them a little drink besides. So when he was in bed, it smelled like that, and he, ( she laughs ) his wife, my stepmother get up from the bed to take the baby to go change the diaper and she said, "Whoo! How it smelled!" And he said, "I'm smelling now, huh? I'm smelling!" And she said, "Oh, don't be mad. Next time I'm going to say you smell like violets." ( they laugh ) So he got a habit to jump up from the bed and lift his hand. I thought he was going to hit her. I jumped from my bed and I run there and in front of her, I said, "You're not going to hit her." He said, "I never hit her!" ( she laughs )

MOORE:

Well, what was your father's personality? What type of personality did your father have?

KAUCHICH:

Well, he was, he was really as, oh, how to say, he play accordion. And my family, every one can sing but me. ( Ms. Moore laughs ) And I sound like a bull in the prairie. That's what my sister, the sisters, the nuns, say in church. When she went she told me, she said, "Go over again. Sing again." I try it again, and she said, "Oh, you sound like bull on the prairie." So that's why I remember all the time.

MOORE:

Who said? What nuns said that, here?

KAUCHICH:

No, no, in the old country, when I was . . . ( they laugh )

MOORE:

Now, your father would like to play the accordion, and he liked to sing.

KAUCHICH:

Accordion, and singing and things like that, you know.

MOORE:

Is there another story you remember about your father, any other stories about your father?

KAUCHICH:

I would think I have. At the time, you know, I can tell you, when I jumped up, you know, and stepped in the front of her, I said, "Mama, let's go out." It was in August. I said, "He's, that's all it's going to be, talking, talking, talking." And she went out with me, and he come after us. And when he, I was at the neighbor's, they had a big tree. And my stepmother was standing behind there in her nightclothes. And I had nightclothes on, too. And my dad had the nightclothes on, too. ( she laughs ) And he come there, and I was standing by the other tree. He said, "Where is Mama?" I said, "I am not going to tell you," I said, "because then you nag at her." And ( she laughs ), and he said, "I'm not going to do any more." He said, "You just tell me where she is." When I went to tell him, they walk home. I said, "That's just like Holy Family." All white, ( they laugh ) she carried the baby, and he was with her, and they were talking, and I was behind them. Oh!

MOORE:

( she laughs ) What about your mother's, your real, your birth mother's name? What was her name?

KAUCHICH:

My real birth mother?

MOORE:

Yeah.

KAUCHICH:

What do you call, Neshka, Neshka.

MOORE:

Neshka?

KAUCHICH:

Neshka, yeah.

MOORE:

N-I-S-H-K-A? Neshka?

KAUCHICH:

Neshka. N-E.

MOORE:

N-E.

KAUCHICH:

Yeah.

MOORE:

Okay. And then what was her maiden name, your birth mother's, do you know?

KAUCHICH:

I have to think a little bit. I know it, but you know . . .

MOORE:

All right. We can wait and see, okay. And your stepmother . . .

KAUCHICH:

Bradeshak, Bradeshak.

MOORE:

How do you spell that?

KAUCHICH:

B-R-A-D-E-S-H, we write the S and H, you know.

MOORE:

Yeah.

KAUCHICH:

A-K.

MOORE:

Okay. And what was your stepmother's name, first name?

KAUCHICH:

I didn't, that's one thing I can't tell you about that. ( a dog barks in the background ) Maybe I would, but I'd have to think about it.

MOORE:

Do you know what her maiden name was? Your stepmother's maiden name?

KAUCHICH:

No. No, but . . .

MOORE:

Now, how is it, then, how did you find out, you told me earlier you didn't, you thought your stepmother was your real mother.

KAUCHICH:

Well, when I went out in the hallway when my dad was saying, you know, "My deceased one." I went out in the hallway, I said, "Mama, what does that mean what Daddy's saying?" She said, "I'm not your real mama." She said, "Your mama died when you were a baby, and he's crying for her." I was so mad. That's why I'm here! That's why I'm here.

MOORE:

In the United States?

KAUCHICH:

That's why I am here!

MOORE:

How old were you then?

KAUCHICH:

I was eight years old.

MOORE:

You were eight years old before you found out that your stepmother was your stepmother.

KAUCHICH:

Yeah, yeah.

MOORE:

And why was he crying, "My deceased one." Why was he . . .

KAUCHICH:

I don't know why he was, because he was in love with her before they got married.

MOORE:

With her meaning your stepmother.

KAUCHICH:

Yeah.

MOORE:

Well, tell me about that. You said something about your father and your stepmother were in love before.

KAUCHICH:

Before. And his mother didn't let him marry her.

MOORE:

His, your father's mother didn't let him marry your stepmother.

KAUCHICH:

Yeah.

MOORE:

So what happened?

KAUCHICH:

Then he married my, like it was my mother then, and she married another man, his name was Dolliner [ph].

MOORE:

How do you spell that?

KAUCHICH:

Dolliner [ph] ( she pauses )

MOORE:

We'll make it up. It's all right. ( she laughs ) Okay. So she married . . .

KAUCHICH:

D-O, D-O-L-I. It's so many Dolliners [ph] here in town.

MOORE:

Okay. And so she married another person, and your father married your mother.

KAUCHICH:

Yeah.

MOORE:

And then what happened?

KAUCHICH:

Well, my mother died when I was baby. Her husband died, he must have died after, because one of the boys was younger than I was.

MOORE:

She had children with the other man.

KAUCHICH:

Yah.

MOORE:

How many?

KAUCHICH:

Well, she had two with my dad before they were married.

MOORE:

Ah. So who had those children? Who raised those?

KAUCHICH:

She raised them herself. I don't know how she raised them, but one of the, one was working all the time out in the country, and the other one was educated for shoemaker.

MOORE:

Uh-huh. Okay. So she had two children with your father before they married, then their parents made them marry somebody else.

KAUCHICH:

Yeah. And then, when she got married with the Dolliner [ph] she got two of them.

MOORE:

Two boys?

KAUCHICH:

Two boys.

MOORE:

So she had four boys, then.

KAUCHICH:

Yeah. In 1910 it was so much snow, it was, the house was like this. ( she gestures ) And there was so much snow, when the snow slide down from the roof it was on the ground and still on the roof. And my brothers got up, you know. My brothers stay home all that time yet. He made them open the window in the living room, and they made a tunnel there to go out in the snow. And one of her, her youngest one, his name was Jerry, he was in bed yet, and we were laughing. I didn't go out with my brothers. I just laugh, you know. There I was laughing and that, because they went out to make that tunnel. And Jerry got up, and he had no shoes, just nightgown, and he through out the window in the snow. Three days after, he died, because he got so bad, you know. My stepmother come in and she said, "Where is Jerry?" Jerry come by to go up by the window, you know, to crawl back in the living room. ( she laughs ) That was, I'm telling you, when we think about it, I say all the time, I don't cry for the people like they die. We all have to die. I know that. So I don't never cry that. And, oh . . .

MOORE:

You had, what were the names of your brothers and sisters? Do you remember? Who was the oldest?

KAUCHICH:

My oldest brother was John.

MOORE:

How much older than you was he?

KAUCHICH:

I wouldn't know that, how much older.

MOORE:

Okay. And then John, and then came who?

KAUCHICH:

John, it was, the oldest. Then it was Louie. I got the pictures in there. And then it was Tony. Tony was the Financial Secretary in Sarajevo, you know, for government.

MOORE:

And then who else?

KAUCHICH:

Then it was my sister and me.

MOORE:

What was your sister's name?

KAUCHICH:

Minka. [ph]

MOORE:

Minka [ph]. All right. And so, what about your house? Describe your house in Skofja Loka. What type of house was it?

KAUCHICH:

Well, the size was like this, like that. ( she gestures ) But this, the roof was straw.

MOORE:

It had a straw roof. And what was the house made of, the outside?

KAUCHICH:

Well, it was, it's all difference now, because they remodeled it. But it was more wood because I know when my dad got married and I thought it was so funny. We lived in the apartment just like Union Mercantile would be. We lived in an apartment. And when we moved into this house, like my dad married this stepmother, and we, he had lots of furniture, all the beautiful. My dad was picky. He was picky. He wanted to have everything polished and . . .

MOORE:

Did he make the furniture, or did he buy it?

KAUCHICH:

He buy it.

MOORE:

He bought it, okay. And you said as big as this house. How many rooms are we talking about? How many rooms does your house have?

KAUCHICH:

The house, it was just a big room. And the, my brothers had a bedroom here, like. ( she gestures ) And we all had my, the oldest brother was sleeping outside up in the attic, and my two brothers were in that bed, and my sister and I were in a drawer what they pulled out.

MOORE:

In the same room.

KAUCHICH:

Same room. And my dad and my stepmother had on the, it was a big room, but they had a bed in the other side.

MOORE:

Was there upstairs to the house?

KAUCHICH:

No.

MOORE:

Just an attic.

KAUCHICH:

Not at that time, but it was, the attic was up there, when they moved and my dad had so much furniture they have to put some up in attic.

MOORE:

And how was your house heated? How was it heated? What type of heat did your house have?

KAUCHICH:

Oh, just, I don't know. It's pictured someplace.

MOORE:

Was it, what type of heat did you use? How did you . . .

KAUCHICH:

Wood.

MOORE:

Wood.

KAUCHICH:

Wood, wood, wood.

MOORE:

Was it a stove or a fireplace, or . . .

KAUCHICH:

A fireplace, yeah.

MOORE:

A fireplace, okay. And did you have indoor plumbing or outdoor plumbing? How did you go to the bathroom? Where was the toilet?

KAUCHICH:

Oh, we just went just like you'd go here in the country. ( she laughs )

MOORE:

In the outhouse.

KAUCHICH:

Outhouse, yeah.

MOORE:

And did you, how about lights? How about the lights? What were they?

KAUCHICH:

Well, we didn't have the light before, but when I remember after when we, when I was bigger, that we had the light. I don't really remember which year it was.

MOORE:

And did you have a garden?

KAUCHICH:

Yeah.

MOORE:

And what did you grow?

KAUCHICH:

But the garden at home, because just like my stepmother was, we didn't have, just a little garden at home. The other thing, it was all out in the country, and she had to go there.

MOORE:

So she also worked in the field.

KAUCHICH:

Yeah, yeah.

MOORE:

Okay. And what did you grow in the garden near your house?

KAUCHICH:

Well, it was at home. We had some beans, and lettuce and things like that. Parsley and carrots for soup and things like that. That was at home. And then it was out, the other things were out in the country, for the, just say for the pig, or something like that.

MOORE:

And was your house in town or out of town?

KAUCHICH:

It was in town.

MOORE:

It was in town.

KAUCHICH:

Yeah.

MOORE:

Was it near Valerie [sic] Kalan's house? ( referring to interviewee KM-55 )

KAUCHICH:

Yeah. But just, there is just difference just like if it was here and I was down on . . .

MOORE:

Ah, okay. So it was within walking distance?

KAUCHICH:

Yeah.

MOORE:

And did you keep any animals? Did you have any animals?

KAUCHICH:

Well, my stepmother had it.

MOORE:

What did she have?

KAUCHICH:

She had a donkey, and she had a cow, and she had a pig to kill it, that was for wintertime. Just summertime, that she could bring the vegetables from the garden, from home to feed the pig, and then they kill it for wintertime, yah.

MOORE:

And did your grandparents live with you?

KAUCHICH:

No.

MOORE:

Where did your grandparents live?

KAUCHICH:

Well, my, what you mean, grandparents?

MOORE:

Your father's parents?

KAUCHICH:

Well, no. My grandmother, she lived just like Union Mercantile would be here. You know, some, in an apartment. And, oh, she was mean. She was mean. ( she laughs )

MOORE:

Whose mother was that? Whose mother?

KAUCHICH:

My dad's mother.

MOORE:

Your dad's mother was mean. ( Mrs. Kauchich pantomines being hit by her grandmother ) ( she laughs )

KAUCHICH:

I had one spanking on account of her because she lied on me.

MOORE:

How did she lie?

KAUCHICH:

She lie on me that I went to beg her for bread. My sister and I went to school, in old country, like we went from school, we can go, just like here on the K Street, all by the underpass. And my sister say, "Let's go this way." And on K Street it would be down, just like Union Mercantile Store was. My stepmother, my grandmother lived there. And she, when we're across the street, this way down by the Northside Bank, we were down there halfway across. She said, "You don't know where Grandma lives." I said, "Yes, I do." She said, "But you don't know which part of the apartment." I run across the street, and I put the finger on the window. I say, "Right here." My grandmother opened the door, and she said, "What do you do?" I said, "Nothing." And I run back. When there was Mass for my mother, my mother, you know, my stepmother went to church, and when she come out my grandmother was waiting for her. She said, "I see you're going to have another one, and you can't even feed those what you got now." And my stepmother say, "I feed them. They never have to be hungry." And she said, she told me, right, me, because she didn't like me. My sister was more on her side, but I wasn't. I love my stepmother, and so I did. And she said that I went to beg her for bread, which I didn't. When my stepmother come home from the church that time, she said before, when she went to the Mass, she said, "Have the face pan with water and comb ready so I'm going to comb your hair so you're not going to be late for school." When she come home, she start to hit me. I said, "Mama, what did I do? What did I do?" And I said, she said, she couldn't say anything, she was, ahhhhhh, so nervous, you know, that. And I asked her a couple of times, and I just, so my sister ask her, she said, "At least tell her what you're hitting her for." And my stepmother said to my sister, she said, "Hush. You stick with the other side." And my sister say again, "At least tell her what you're hitting her for." And she said, "Because she went to Grandma to beg for bread."

MOORE:

And did you say that wasn't true?

KAUCHICH:

Oh, no!

MOORE:

Did you tell your mother?

KAUCHICH:

Why, sure.

MOORE:

And did she realize it was a lie?

KAUCHICH:

Oh, yeah. Oh, she knows.

MOORE:

So your mother's, your father's mother never liked your stepmother, did she?

KAUCHICH:

Well, they didn't really know, I guess.

MOORE:

Because she didn't allow her to marry her son.

KAUCHICH:

Well, my grandmother didn't let her, yeah. Oh, she didn't like her. Oh, no. And even after, when they were married, she would be against him, you know. Sure, all the time.

MOORE:

Okay. So what about, who did the cooking in the family, then? Did you help at all? Cooking?

KAUCHICH:

Cook, to cook?

MOORE:

Yeah, who cooked?

KAUCHICH:

She did.

MOORE:

Your stepmother.

KAUCHICH:

Yeah.

MOORE:

And did she, what was your favorite food?

KAUCHICH:

Oh, she cooked so good things all the time, I can't say what was my favorite.

MOORE:

What was it, what was your most favorite food, always?

KAUCHICH:

What she cooked, it was so good. I don't know, they don't have it here. It's the, the, like a tripe from the calf. And she used to get that, all the time she tell to the butcher when they're going to have the calf for that. And they all, I don't know, the people like my stepmother, and the butchers say all the time, "We're going to have it and we're going to save it for you." So they save it, and she cook that, cut it up, put some bread in it, eggs in it, and she made the, like a loaf of bread, like that, ( she gestures ) and she put it to cook. Oh, that was delicious.

KAUCHICH:

Were there any other foods you like a lot? Anything else?

MOORE:

Oh, she cooked everything. I remember when she used to make, we call it bubba, just like donuts. And she said she was going to make that, and my brother say, "Oh, we're going to wait for it." And she said, "No, you can't, wait." She said, "Tomorrow's a holiday and we want to have it for, some left for tomorrow." Well, I was too stubborn. I said, "I am not going to go to bed before I'm going to have the first one." She said, "You are going to bed." We liked her, and we obeyed her. She said, "You're going to bed," she said, "but one o'clock, when I'm going to be through at night, I'm going to come and bring you some." At one o'clock at night she come, she had one, scraps from the, that. She made a dolly. I never had a dolly when I was baby. She made the dolly, and she had it, the scrap dolly in this hand, and in this hand she had a towel. She come by the bed and she call me up. She shake me up. She said, "Here, I got it." She said, "I bring you a dolly." And I thought I was going to wrap that dolly and put her in the bed with me." She said, "You can't do that." She said, "It's greasy, you have to eat it." That's, I never asked for the dolly again. I ate that dolly, and I wiped my hands. That was the last time. I never did. And I never was mad at my stepmother. She was good. She was really good.

MOORE:

What about mealtime? She said you could cook very well. What were meals like? Did you eat together as a family or . . .

KAUCHICH:

Yeah.

MOORE:

Everybody?

KAUCHICH:

Yeah, we did.

MOORE:

And where did you eat?

KAUCHICH:

Sometimes, well, we had a table, and from the table we'd eat it from there, from the pan.

MOORE:

And where was the table? Where did you have the table?

KAUCHICH:

It was in a, by the front, by the, more in the corner.

MOORE:

In the kitchen, where did, the water, where did you get water?

KAUCHICH:

Well, we got the water, we used to get, go for the water. The water, the river was right here, this yard down here, and we'd get that for the cow or ox. But for the cooking, we went to the Meyers. It was just a neighbor there. And we went over there to get the water for cooking there.

MOORE:

And who got the water in the family?

KAUCHICH:

She did all the time.

MOORE:

Your mother, stepmother.

KAUCHICH:

Yeah.

MOORE:

Okay. So in the kitchen you had, how was the kitchen? Tell me about the kitchen. How was it?

KAUCHICH:

How can I tell you the kitchen? For outside . . .

MOORE:

Hold on for a second. We're going to switch the tape here. END OF SIDE ONE, TAPE ONE BEGINNING OF SIDE TWO, TAPE ONE

MOORE:

Describe the kitchen for us, then.

KAUCHICH:

Well, it wasn't really a kitchen, the hallway, you know, like. And it was a little bit bigger than this, but it was long that way. ( she gestures )

MOORE:

It was a long kitchen.

KAUCHICH:

Yeah, it was.

MOORE:

What did your mother cook on? What did she, how did she cook the food?

KAUCHICH:

I don't know, is that, a big, a big, uh, oh, I don't know how to say.

MOORE:

Did she have a stove, or a . . .

KAUCHICH:

Yeah. They had to put it in the oven, just like that. It would be like that on the side. And open like that. ( she demonstrates ) And she put the things in, uh, containers, and put it in there to cook.

MOORE:

And what was the heat? What type of fire did she . . .

KAUCHICH:

Wood, wood.

MOORE:

Wood. So it was heated by a wood stove. Okay. And describe what your father looked like to me? What did your father look like? What color eyes did he have?

KAUCHICH:

Gray.

MOORE:

Gray eyes. How tall was he?

KAUCHICH:

Like me.

MOORE:

He was short? All right. How tall are you, about?

KAUCHICH:

When I came here Steve and I, my husband Steve, you know, I was one inch shorter than him. My husband was five-two.

MOORE:

So you're five-one.

KAUCHICH:

Yeah.

MOORE:

And your father was about the same size.

KAUCHICH:

My father was the same. I know when I danced with my father I was just as tall as he was.

MOORE:

And so what color hair did your father have?

KAUCHICH:

Oh, light brownish, like.

MOORE:

Brownish, like. How about your stepmother. What did she look like? Was she, how tall was she?

KAUCHICH:

She was a little taller.

MOORE:

A little taller. Taller than five-two, or five-three?

KAUCHICH:

Yeah, yeah, five-three.

MOORE:

And what color eyes did she have?

KAUCHICH:

Oh, I don't know how to say it. Gray or blue, something like that. ( a dog barks in the background )

MOORE:

How about her hair color? What color hair?

KAUCHICH:

She had the dark hair.

MOORE:

Dark brown?

KAUCHICH:

Yeah, dark. Very dark.

MOORE:

Okay. And what about religion in your family? Were you religious?

KAUCHICH:

Oh, my dad, oh . . .

MOORE:

Was he?

KAUCHICH:

My dad was working all the time for the sisters in the convent. Every year he went over there and he was crazy about lilies and . . .

MOORE:

Lilies in [sic] the Valley?

KAUCHICH:

No, the lilies.

MOORE:

Oh, lilies.

KAUCHICH:

And roses. He was crazy about that, so he went there all the time. And when I went to, she want for me to sing, and said that I sound like bull on the prairie. And she said, "When your dad comes to work for us, he's all the time yodeling and singing and he wake everyone up, and you can't even sing." Because I was the only one in the family, I couldn't sing.

MOORE:

And so your . . .

KAUCHICH:

My, from my town there, here in the book, because they were here in Rock Springs.

MOORE:

So does your father go to, what religion were you? What were you?

KAUCHICH:

We were Catholic.

MOORE:

Catholic. Did your father go to Mass?

KAUCHICH:

Oh, my goodness, yes.

MOORE:

How often?

KAUCHICH:

He was singing, he was in the church.

MOORE:

Oh, yeah. So how often did he go to Mass?

KAUCHICH:

Every Sunday.

MOORE:

Every Sunday. Did your stepmother go to church?

KAUCHICH:

Oh, yes, oh, yes.

MOORE:

With him?

KAUCHICH:

No. Because, you know, she had to watch the kids and that.

MOORE:

Did you go to church every Sunday?

KAUCHICH:

Yeah, when I was from little, and then after when I went to work, I was all the time.

MOORE:

Now, when you ate meals, did you say a prayer before you ate?

KAUCHICH:

Yeah.

MOORE:

You did? Grace.

KAUCHICH:

Yeah.

MOORE:

Did you say prayers at night before you went to bed?

KAUCHICH:

Well, now, at home my stepmother used to pray sometimes and she'd doze off. And she said lots of times, "Where was I?" ( she laughs )

MOORE:

So you would say, would you say prayers together?

KAUCHICH:

Yeah.

MOORE:

And then she would fall asleep.

KAUCHICH:

Yeah, just like rosary.

MOORE:

Yeah, the rosary.

KAUCHICH:

You know. And that was so funny. But there like I was after, all those years I was in with the same family from 1914 till 1920.

MOORE:

What family?

KAUCHICH:

Difference, I wasn't at home, no. I went baby, I was babysitting when I was five, uh, nine years old. I left home because I was mad at my dad, crying, crying for my mother.

MOORE:

Oh, so when you learned about your real mother.

KAUCHICH:

Yeah.

MOORE:

Then you got angry at your father for not telling you.

KAUCHICH:

Yeah, yeah.

MOORE:

So then you took work for other families.

KAUCHICH:

Then I left. I, she asked me, my stepmother say, "Please stay home, get educated." "I'm not going to stay home. I'm not going to stay with my dad, no." She said, "Please, just stay home." So I stay one year, till I went to Confirmation, and no more after that.

MOORE:

Where was the church that you lived, that you went to, sorry?

KAUCHICH:

In my home town. Oh, please, I'd have to give you the book to see it. But it was close.

MOORE:

Walking distance?

KAUCHICH:

Oh, yeah, yeah.

MOORE:

And how, what was it like, the church? Do you remember it?

KAUCHICH:

Oh, lots of difference than they are here.

MOORE:

How was it? Did it have, how was the church? Did it have a steeple?

KAUCHICH:

Yeah.

MOORE:

And how big was it? How many people fitted inside that, fit inside that?

KAUCHICH:

Oh, there it was a big church. There are a big church.

MOORE:

How many people could fit inside, do you think?

KAUCHICH:

Oh, I don't know. A hundred, for sure.

MOORE:

A hundred, for sure. Did you ever experience any religious prejudice for being Catholic? Did anybody ever say anything to you bad for being religious?

KAUCHICH:

No, no. I don't remember nothing that somebody would say. Because in my, in my town it was all religious, you know.

MOORE:

Okay. What about holidays? What was your favorite holiday?

KAUCHICH:

Oh, I looked forward all the time to holidays. ( she laughs )

MOORE:

Which ones?

KAUCHICH:

Well, the most it was when we had good food to eat.

MOORE:

And when was that?

KAUCHICH:

And that, well, depended, just, like, in my home town. My stepmother, she have, that was just close. It was really close to us. And we had a church up on a hill, and that wasn't too far. And then it was, oh, so many churches. I don't know how to tell you. Why don't you look at the book? ( they laugh )

MOORE:

All right. But, wait a minute. We're back to holidays. Which holidays do you like the best?

KAUCHICH:

Well, just like here, it's Fourth of July. And there is, in the place like I was after, it was St. Jacob, and that's the 25th of July. And they had a, oh, good that time.

MOORE:

Good food?

KAUCHICH:

Oh, my gosh!

MOORE:

What food?

KAUCHICH:

Good food, all kind of food. And then they eat in, just like when I was working there, or there went somebody else, you're working there, you can invite your sister or your brother to come.

MOORE:

Even though you worked for the family.

KAUCHICH:

Yeah.

MOORE:

And St. Jacob's Day, the 25th of July, what was that celebrating?

KAUCHICH:

Well, that's a saint.

MOORE:

A saint day.

KAUCHICH:

Yeah.

MOORE:

And that was one of your favorites?

KAUCHICH:

Well, I don't know if so many favorites. ( she laughs ) I like Christmas and, uh . . .

MOORE:

Easter?

KAUCHICH:

Easter, yeah.

MOORE:

What did you eat at Christmas? What special foods did you eat?

KAUCHICH:

Well, so much patitzas [ph] . . .

MOORE:

Patitzas [ph], huh.

KAUCHICH:

And they, all kind of, well, at home we could go to the butchers and get it, you know. But out in the country like I was we didn't, but we had it at home all the time. Ham.

MOORE:

You had ham.

KAUCHICH:

Ham, sausages, and every, all kind of things, you know.

MOORE:

Did you give gifts at Christmas?

KAUCHICH:

No.

MOORE:

Did you have a Christmas tree?

KAUCHICH:

Yah.

MOORE:

And how did you decorate the tree?

KAUCHICH:

Oh, nice. I'm telling you.

MOORE:

How, how?

KAUCHICH:

All kind of, we had all kind of things.

MOORE:

What did you put on the tree?

KAUCHICH:

Well, they got all kind of different things that I make at home too, you know. And it was . . .

MOORE:

Did you put cookies on the tree?

KAUCHICH:

I don't remember that I would put anything.

MOORE:

How about, did you any . . .

KAUCHICH:

I would eat them. ( they laugh )

MOORE:

All right. What about school? Did you go to school?

KAUCHICH:

I went to school when I was home then. And then, when I was babysitting, for two years I went every Thursday during the school time. It was because on Thursday they didn't have in town, they didn't have the school. But on Thursday it's out from the country.

MOORE:

So up until nine years old, eight or nine years old, you went to a school like other children in the town.

KAUCHICH:

Yeah.

MOORE:

What was that school like? How far was it from your house?

KAUCHICH:

Oh, when I'm at home it was . . .

MOORE:

Yeah.

KAUCHICH:

When I'm at home it was close, just like here it would be any place. But when I was out in the country, it's just like from coming, from Superior or fourteen miles here more down, you know, and come to school.

MOORE:

How did you get to school when you were in the countryside?

KAUCHICH:

Huh?

MOORE:

How did you go to school? What transportation did you use?

KAUCHICH:

Walk.

MOORE:

When you were home you walked. How about the countryside?

KAUCHICH:

Yeah.

MOORE:

You walked every Thursday?

KAUCHICH:

Oh, yes, oh, yes. We walked.

MOORE:

Okay. Do you, the school that you went to at home in Skofja Loka, how big was it, the school? Was it run by the church?

KAUCHICH:

Yeah. Well, it was big, to say big, because they had big rooms and sisters, you know. It was Catholic.

MOORE:

So you were taught by . . .

KAUCHICH:

Because my brothers, see, the boys didn't go to the same. The boys had a different place.

MOORE:

So boys and girls were separated.

KAUCHICH:

Yeah.

MOORE:

And you were taught by nuns.

KAUCHICH:

Yeah.

MOORE:

Did you ever have any favorite nuns in school?

KAUCHICH:

I don't know. They all know me and . . . ( she laughs )

MOORE:

What was your favorite subject?

KAUCHICH:

I wasn't, all my, everything was good but arithmetic.

MOORE:

You didn't like it?

KAUCHICH:

Well, I'm going to tell you one thing. You're going to laugh about it. You're going to laugh about it right now. Yesterday I made a check, and I made a mistake for fifty dollars. When I was in bed I was thinking, "How come that I did that?" And I get up at midnight, and I took the pencil, and I went to check my checkbook, and I put it down right. When I'm in bed it comes in my mind. Isn't that something?

MOORE:

That's incredible. You didn't like arithmetic, or what?

KAUCHICH:

It wasn't that I didn't like it, but I was pretty bad with it. When the people, when the people ask me, when they get the report cards, "Show me your report card," I was ashamed to show it, you know. Because everything was A's, but arithmetic was three, C. So I didn't like to show. And they were so surprised, how come that you got all the A's and that. And I still, is the same thing. But last night it was that, that I made a mistake and instead of making it hundred and sixty-seven that I got it in the checkbook, I made a mistake. So I get up at midnight and I put that down. That's how it comes in my mind. You'd be surprised. You wouldn't think that it's true, but it is.

MOORE:

Did you learn any English before coming to this country?

KAUCHICH:

No.

MOORE:

No. What did you do for fun when you were children in Skofja Loka? What did you do?

KAUCHICH:

Hopscotch.

MOORE:

Hopscotch.

KAUCHICH:

Yeah. I remember. I was thinking that, too. When, I liked to play that, hopscotch, all the time. And once when I was playing hopscotch, my dad come to me and I was seven years old, and he said, my sister didn't stay home because she didn't like my stepmother. So she was out in the country, and I was seven years old, and I played hopscotch. And my dad come to me and he said, "Come with me. We're going to go and see your sister. Maybe you're going to see her the last time alive." I went with him. I didn't see my sister. I don't remember that I would see my sister anyway, because she was out someplace in, I guess the sheep, herding the sheep or something like that, or the goat or something. Anyway, you know when she died? My dad said the time that you're going to see her the last time. When I was here and my, I had my hip surgery. That's eleven years ago. It's going to be nine, I mean, nine years ago, it's going to be ten years. I was eighty-two when I had that surgery. And my sister had the same trouble in the old country with her hip.

MOORE:

What was she sick with? What was she, she was ill, then, when you went to see her. When you were playing hopscotch and your father, what was wrong with her?

KAUCHICH:

Nothing! She was out in the country someplace. No, she wasn't, she wasn't sick. My dad, he stopped because they say that she had a heart trouble.

MOORE:

Oh, I see, yeah.

KAUCHICH:

She had heart trouble, nothing.

MOORE:

Well, how did you come to the United States? How did you get here?

KAUCHICH:

How I come?

MOORE:

Why did you come here?

KAUCHICH:

I come because I was so (?), my dad and my stepmother wanted for me to come here. They said that they wanted for me to go to better country.

MOORE:

Uh-huh. And you worked from nine years old until eighteen doing what?

KAUCHICH:

First when I was nine years old, I bet you know her, do you know Rose Doke [ph]?

MOORE:

No, I don't know her.

KAUCHICH:

You don't. For her, for her aunt in the old country, I got a picture of the boy, like, I was babysitting. ( she laughs )

MOORE:

So you babysat for her?

KAUCHICH:

I did.

MOORE:

Then what did you do?

KAUCHICH:

And then they cheated me. First it was she asked me to teach the boy to say "Our Father." He wouldn't repeat. Playing with fingers like that. ( she demonstrates ) And I said, "When I go to town I'm going to buy some peppermint candies and I'm not going to give you any." He went and tell his mother in the hallway. She come in with a stick, and that stick had a knot in it. She hit me across the back. Ooh. I couldn't, a couple days, a couple of weeks I couldn't straighten up. And her husband saw me. He come to me, and he said, "What happened?" I didn't want to tell him, because my stepmother say, "Please don't go away from home. Stay home, get educated. Because when you go someplace, maybe the people are not going to be good to you." So I didn't want to say anything to that man when he ask. Then he said, "Did Lucy hit you?" I did like that. ( she nods her head ) He run in the house and he holler at her. He said that, "If you touch that girl again, I'll kill you." Because I was good to all of them. So, anyway, then she cheated me on the strawberries. And that's one thing, don't cheat me on the strawberries or cherries. ( she laughs )

MOORE:

What do you mean she cheated you on the strawberries?

KAUCHICH:

She sent me to town, to the cafe, to get two fryers, a dozen eggs, as much butter as she can afford. I went to town instead of watching the kids. And while I went to town she took the kids to go to strawberries where I told them once before that I'm going to take them next Sunday, and she went and take the kids there, and they went to pick the strawberries. When I come on that Sunday after, I said, "You eat your dinner fast so I can wipe your face and comb your hair and we're going to go and get some strawberries." And the older boy say, "There is no more strawberries." I said, "What happened?" "Mama took us there while you was in town." Oh. That was too much for me. I went home and my stepmother asked me, she said, "What's wrong?" She said, "Are you sick?" I didn't want to tell her. And Sunday after I went to church again, and I stood there. I always went to say hi to my stepmother, you know, because I love her. And she said, "This time you're not going to go away. You're going to tell me what's wrong." I told her. She said, "This is your home and you come here. Nobody's going to treat you like that." So I came home. And that was in 1914. And then I went to these people after, and this man's guy was here in Rock Springs that he started an orphanage in Torrington.

MOORE:

An orphanage.

KAUCHICH:

Yeah. And then I, I was there from 1914 till 1920, till I come here.

MOORE:

Now, that was when the war was on, wasn't it?

KAUCHICH:

Yeah.

MOORE:

And how did, did you ever go hungry, ever?

KAUCHICH:

Well, I didn't have to out in the country.

MOORE:

You said, you expressed earlier that Valentine Kalan, you were surprised that he was hungry at the same time in the same town.

KAUCHICH:

Well, I don't know, see, in town. Lots of people from town, they come dig the potatoes out in the country, to steal them like that. And chestnuts, but the chestnuts all the time, when I saw them that they were picking the chestnuts I say to this lady, "Somebody's picking the chestnuts." She said, "Let them pick the chestnuts," she said, "so that the mouse don't have it for wintertime." She said, "They can have it." But they didn't like when they went to dig the potatoes and that, you know.

MOORE:

So people were hungry in town.

KAUCHICH:

In town they were hungry.

MOORE:

And you were at some people's house in the country.

KAUCHICH:

Oh, I never was hungry, but I was once too full. ( she laughs )

MOORE:

Once too full?

KAUCHICH:

This lady look at my shoes and she saw that I have knots in my shoelaces. And she gave me five cents. The shoelaces were two pennies, and she gave me five cents, and she said, "When you go to town," she said, "go and buy yourself shoelaces so you can have it." When I went to town I come by the bakery, like it was down on the, just like it would be down on the North Front Street. My brother used to work there in the bakery. I went in there and I spent the whole nickel. I didn't save for my, ( she laughs ) I didn't save for my shoelaces. And then, oh, I was so full when I ate that. I remember that I never been so full. And then I was thinking how I'm going to tell that lady. But since my stepmother, I mean grandmother, lied on me to my stepmother, I said, "I'm never going to lie again. I can't lie." So everything I tell you, it's true. It really is, no lies. And when I was on the way home I thought myself, "Oh, if she's going to ask me what I did with the nickel, I'm going to just tell her I lost it. That's going to be easier." And I thought, "Oh, that's going to be a lie. I'm not going to lie to her." When I come home, she look at my shoes, she said, "Did you get the shoelaces?" Ooh, I didn't, ooh, it was so hard for me to tell the truth, and I said, "No, I didn't." And she said, "Next time I'm going to give you something, you buy what I tell you, and then spend the other money for goodies." She went in her bedroom, she got the laces and gave it to me, and she said, "But remember," she said, "don't do that." But they were good, they were good people, really.

MOORE:

So you're eighteen years old. Whose idea was it to come to the States?

KAUCHICH:

Who else was coming?

MOORE:

No, whose idea?

KAUCHICH:

Whose idea? My dad and my stepmother.

MOORE:

How did they get this idea to come to the United States?

KAUCHICH:

Well, they, my dad and my stepmother, they talked all the time that I would deserve to go someplace to have better. Yeah.

MOORE:

So how did you, how, did they, do you remember them telling you about this?

KAUCHICH:

No, no. They didn't. The only thing I know, when I was working for these people, and when I come home, and my stepmother asked me, she said, "Have you got a boyfriend?" I, am I going to lie? I was a friend with a boy, that's for sure. I said, "Yes." She said, "Can you trust him?" I said, "No." She said, "Why not?" I said, "Because rich, he's rich and I'm a working girl." And she said, "Then it's the best that you come right home." And that was the time when my dad asked her to ask me different things, how I manage, because over there, like, I was, when I went that time over there, I was really lively, you know. When this, when I come to that place this lady, like, she, my stepmother say to this lady, "Be careful with her. Don't you let her go no place. She's too lively. She's too (?)." ( she laughs ) And I had to, and we had, they had a big house, two-story house, you know. And the only thing, I have to go up there and watch how the other visitors were talking about it. And she didn't want me to go and talk with those, because they didn't talk what she would like to.

MOORE:

About what?

KAUCHICH:

Oh, different things about boyfriends and that, she didn't want it. And so I was up there. It was good. I ate, I was eating the grapes. ( she laughs ) But then after, every time I go someplace somebody have to go with me.

MOORE:

So you were escorted everywhere.

KAUCHICH:

Yeah, all the time.

MOORE:

Now, back to this thing about the United States. Your stepmother and father decided, what did you think about it when they first talked about you going to the United States?

KAUCHICH:

Well, my dad write to me. See, my sister and I was working for the same people. And my dad write to me if I want to come to America.

MOORE:

Now was he here in America or . . .

KAUCHICH:

Yeah, he was here.

MOORE:

What year did he leave?

KAUCHICH:

He came here in 1913, and then he left right after I got married, 1921.

MOORE:

Okay. So he came here. Was your stepmother here, too?

KAUCHICH:

Yeah. No, no, no, no, no.

MOORE:

She was in Skofja Loka.

KAUCHICH:

She was in Skofja Loka.

MOORE:

What was your father doing here?

KAUCHICH:

He was working in the mine.

MOORE:

And so he wrote you and said, "Come to the United States."

KAUCHICH:

Yeah. And then I said, "Well, I write back to him I would come but my sister was so difference I wouldn't want her to come with me.

MOORE:

You didn't want to come with your sister.

KAUCHICH:

No. And when I write to my dad, I said, "Is my sister going to come too?" He write back, "No, just you." Really, if my sister would have come, I wouldn't. Maybe it isn't nice to talk about my sister like that, but she was so difference. When I went back nineteen years ago, everywhere I went the people were telling me difference than when my sister write to me, and I didn't like that.

MOORE:

Like what? Like what were they saying?

KAUCHICH:

Just like she was, this man, like, we work for, and that another girl was working there, and that he had something to do with her and she got pregnant, which was not true. And she said that girl, she write to me that that boy said when he was a little bigger I'm going to kill her, and she write to me that he did kill her. When I was there nineteen years ago I didn't want to say that, but I had to say that it's too bad that she had to die like that, and the man said, "Oh, she didn't. She didn't have any ( she coughs ) trouble like that." He said that she had a heart attack when she was out in the toilet. ( she coughs ) She died from that. And my sister tell me a lie, write to me that this boy kill her.

MOORE:

So there was a difference between what you found from people talking to people and what your sister had written to you.

KAUCHICH:

All the difference. Everything difference.

MOORE:

So you felt a difference between yourself and your sister from very young.

KAUCHICH:

Oh, so much. She must have been like my grandmother was.

MOORE:

So you weren't close to her at all, this sister?

KAUCHICH:

Well, I couldn't be, to tell you the truth, I couldn't. Because we were, now, we were working for the same people. My sister was working for the people like, this lady was from the family. And so her sister brought her over there, and this lady said, "Well, what, how am I going to do anything with her?" And she said that she can learn from me. How she's going to learn from me, I was younger than her and she didn't want to listen to me.

MOORE:

So, okay. So you came, how did you come to the United States? Who paid for your trip?

KAUCHICH:

My dad.

MOORE:

What did you expect before you came here? What were your expectations?

KAUCHICH:

What do you mean?

MOORE:

What did you know about the United States before you came here?

KAUCHICH:

I didn't know anything. ( she laughs )

MOORE:

You didn't?

KAUCHICH:

No.

MOORE:

Why did they tell you you should come here, then?

KAUCHICH:

Well, my dad write, well, he was satisfied the way he was, you know.

MOORE:

What did he write in his letters about the United States?

KAUCHICH:

Well, how, you know, how it is that I can live better, learn better, you know, and that. I took . . .

MOORE:

Hold on. END OF SIDE TWO, TAPE ONE BEGINNING OF SIDE ONE, TAPE TWO

MOORE:

Okay. So you came alone.

KAUCHICH:

Yeah.

MOORE:

And what did you pack? Do you remember packing for coming?

KAUCHICH:

Oh, please, my dad write to me, "Don't bring the clothes, because it's different style over here." I was so mad at him.

MOORE:

And so what did you pack?

KAUCHICH:

I packed, well, just, I didn't, the good clothes, you know, I left them there because maybe they are different style here.

MOORE:

And what, did you go, did you have a special dress made or anything.

KAUCHICH:

Oh, no. I had, I had, my dad sent me five dollars and I got a better suit than anything I had. ( she laughs ) I had, I buy material and have my suit made, and my sister buy the ring and she tried to tell him that she lost it. And he didn't like that. He liked that better what I did. But my dad pay for everything. It was two hundred and sixty-five dollars at the time.

MOORE:

And so how did, did Father Schiffler help you at all, come over?

KAUCHICH:

No.

MOORE:

Did the priest there help you at all?

KAUCHICH:

No, my, he was my dad's friend. They were really friends, you know.

MOORE:

Who was?

KAUCHICH:

Father Schiffler.

MOORE:

He was your father's friend.

KAUCHICH:

Yes.

MOORE:

And your father arranged everything from Rock Springs?

KAUCHICH:

Yeah.

MOORE:

All right. Did you take anything with you special from home? Did you bring a Bible or anything, any items? What did you pack?

KAUCHICH:

I don't remember that I would bring anything else, you know, like that.

MOORE:

Just clothes. How about food? Did you bring food?

KAUCHICH:

Well, I would eat it, you know. It took a long time before I come. You know, I left home on the 28th of February, and I come to Rock Springs April the 6th.

MOORE:

All right. How did you get your, where did you get your passport? Did you have any . . .

KAUCHICH:

Well, as to say dumb, lots of times I even think I was maybe so dumb, because I went all over myself in the old country to take care of the passport.

MOORE:

And where did you go?

KAUCHICH:

Oh . . .

MOORE:

To get the passport?

KAUCHICH:

Belgrade, Ljubljana and all places like that. I don't know how I managed. I don't even understand that I could do that.

MOORE:

And so you, you packed your things up. Now, did they give you a party before you left, or a dinner? Did anybody say . . .

KAUCHICH:

Who?

MOORE:

Your family.

KAUCHICH:

No. My brothers, they weren't really against, but one of my brothers, he was all the time thinking that I, he loved me and he wanted for me to stay home. But he was, when he was sixteen years old he came to the people like I stay with, and he said, "I'm going to, how you say, free to go to the army? How?

MOORE:

He's going to go to the army.

KAUCHICH:

Yeah, when he was sixteen years old. I said, "You're going to go to the army? I said, "You got three brothers killed now, and you're going to go to kill somebody else?

MOORE:

Wait. What brothers were killed? Who got killed?

KAUCHICH:

Mine.

MOORE:

Your, three of your brothers got killed? When?

KAUCHICH:

1914.

MOORE:

Three of your brothers were killed in the First War.

KAUCHICH:

Yeah. Two, two of hers, and one of mine.

MOORE:

And what happened at home when you heard the news? What was that, how did your mother react to this?

KAUCHICH:

She didn't, I don't know. She didn't, really, I wasn't home, you know, to know very much.

MOORE:

So your fourth brother wanted to go in the army, and you said no.

KAUCHICH:

When he . . .

MOORE:

( she adjusts the microphone ) Just, because the microphone's there. Okay. So then when he went, ( referring to the microphone ) you're fine.

KAUCHICH:

When I, that I went, you know, he said that he's going to go to the army. I beg him, I said, "Please don't go." And he said, "I'm going to go, because I'm going to get free education for five years." That's why he went. And he went, he went to school till he was nine-, uh, he was twenty-one.

MOORE:

What year was that that he went into the army? What year?

KAUCHICH:

I really don't know. I wouldn't remember. Because when the war was, he said to me, he said, "Don't worry about it. The war is going to be over two months." He said, "I won't have to go to the war." He was that kind that he was smart and he act, the other people. That's why he had a good, you know. He was financial secretary for the government, yeah.

MOORE:

Okay. So you came here now. How did your stepmother react? The night before you left, what did you do?

KAUCHICH:

Well, she wasn't too happy about it. ( she laughs ) You know. But she all the time thought that what my dad say that it's better for me and go, when I told her, when she asked me, you know. And she said that if that boy was rich and I was poor, that it's better for me to go away.

MOORE:

Okay. So how did you get from home to the port? What port did you leave from? Where did your boat leave, for the United States?

KAUCHICH:

Well, it was from the Italian side.

MOORE:

From the Italian side. What town?

KAUCHICH:

Trieste, Trieste.

MOORE:

Yeah, Trieste. Okay. And what was the name of the boat? Do you remember?

KAUCHICH:

( she laughs ) I got it in the book someplace.

MOORE:

Okay. Well, how did you get from home? Did you go by train to the boat? How did you go to the boat?

KAUCHICH:

Yeah, go on the train, you know.

MOORE:

How did you get from home to the train?

KAUCHICH:

I don't even remember that.

MOORE:

Do you remember your family's reaction, your brother and your stepmother's, when you left?

KAUCHICH:

Well, my stepmother didn't like very much, but anyway, in a way she was thinking that what my dad wanted, that that's okay.

MOORE:

Okay. So you got, do you remember the train trip to Trieste.

KAUCHICH:

Yeah.

MOORE:

And how was that?

KAUCHICH:

( she laughs ) All kind of a thing, I'm telling you. When we came to Trieste, you know, we have to be undressed, all undressed.

MOORE:

Why?

KAUCHICH:

Naked. We were naked to the shower.

MOORE:

Yeah?

KAUCHICH:

And I was so embarrassed. And then the other girls too, we were all together. We hold each other, you know, and we went in the place to shower, you know, because we had to have a shower. And they had to check . . .

MOORE:

Did you have a medical examination?

KAUCHICH:

Yeah.

MOORE:

And what did they check?

KAUCHICH:

They checked, you know, everything. But I didn't have very much because I had, I had my . . . ( she gestures )

MOORE:

Vaccinations?

KAUCHICH:

Yeah. I had my vaccinations, three of them.

MOORE:

Before you got to Trieste.

KAUCHICH:

Yeah.

MOORE:

Okay. So that's where you had a medical examination, and your shower. Did you stay overnight there?

KAUCHICH:

Oh, we, I wouldn't remember that for so much. We stayed in different places, you know, there. And when we were saying that we're going to go, and they said, "Oh, they are just telling us to make us feel good, but it's not going to go."

MOORE:

So you had to wait in Trieste, then.

KAUCHICH:

We had to wait, yeah.

MOORE:

And who, where did you stay different places, you said. What different places?

KAUCHICH:

We stay in a, just in a, just like it would be. Just like if I go here to the . . .

MOORE:

Motel or hotel?

KAUCHICH:

( she laughs ) Oh, God. Motel, not!

MOORE:

What was it, like you went to what? Like what? Well, tell me.

KAUCHICH:

Just, ( she pauses ) train depot, train depot. Okay. That's what I say. It's just like one place. Now, we're going to go on that, and we don't go, but we have to wait right there.

MOORE:

At the train depot.

KAUCHICH:

Any place.

MOORE:

Oh, okay. So you didn't have beds.

KAUCHICH:

Oh, no.

MOORE:

Oh, I see. So you're waiting for the, you're waiting at the ship for it to depart, okay. Okay. So what was, what were, do you remember seeing the ship? What was the ship like? ( Mrs. Kauchich looks through papers ) Well, you have to tell me. You can't show me, you have to tell me, for the tape.

KAUCHICH:

If I show it to you you're going to know it. ( she looks through papers ) It must be right in here someplace.

MOORE:

You have a picture of it?

KAUCHICH:

Yeah. Oh, cripes. ( she looks through papers )

MOORE:

( she laughs ) Why don't you tell me about it, though?

KAUCHICH:

That makes me mad. ( referring to looking for the picture ) It must be in the other book. I thought it was in here.

MOORE:

It's okay. All right. It's all right. Why don't you just tell me about it, since . . .

KAUCHICH:

It's, my dad went on a French, and it's . . .

MOORE:

What were the accommodations like on the boat? What kinds of accommodations?

KAUCHICH:

For me it was all good, because I never was sick.

MOORE:

You never were sick.

KAUCHICH:

No, on the train.

MOORE:

Okay. And what class did you come on?

KAUCHICH:

Well, my dad said that he was on second. It isn't in there.

MOORE:

That's okay. Forget about the picture for a moment, because it's more important that you tell us about the ship, okay. So the ship itself, you said, what class were you on? First, second or third?

KAUCHICH:

Second.

MOORE:

Second class. Did you have your own cabin?

KAUCHICH:

No.

MOORE:

No.

KAUCHICH:

No. That's what my dad was mad about it. Because he thought that we should have the separate, but we didn't. We were together, lots of 'em.

MOORE:

And were many people from your home town on that boat? Was anybody else from Skofja Loka?

KAUCHICH:

Yeah.

MOORE:

And did you hang around with them, were you with them or . . .

KAUCHICH:

Well, what it was, it was, what we come here, let's see. It was Mitzy's brother? No.

MOORE:

Mary Radosevich's ( referring to interviewee KM-57 ) brother? Or was she on the boat?

KAUCHICH:

No. No, she wasn't. She come after. But it was her, hers, related to her.

MOORE:

So her relatives came on that boat with you.

KAUCHICH:

Yeah, the boy.

MOORE:

The boy. Were you alone? Who were you traveling with?

KAUCHICH:

No, I wasn't. It was six of us.

MOORE:

Who were the other five?

KAUCHICH:

Tell me to remember. ( she laughs )

MOORE:

But were they friends, or were they older, or . . .

KAUCHICH:

No, they were, one was, one was Petochnik [ph]. He was blind in one eye. And then it was . . .

MOORE:

They were from this home town, Skofja Loka, all of you, six. And you went with them.

KAUCHICH:

Yeah.

MOORE:

And some were boys and some were girls.

KAUCHICH:

Who was the girls? It was just, oh, one, she was married to that Buch [ph], you know.

MOORE:

What day did the ship depart? Do you remember the day that you took off?

KAUCHICH:

Well, I remember when they were saying on April the first we were there. And when we were saying that we're going to go on a ship, and one lady, one young girl, she said, "Oh, they're just bluffing us." She says, "We're not going to go. We're going to have to wait." So we went on the third.

MOORE:

On the third of April.

KAUCHICH:

Yeah.

MOORE:

19-, what year? 1920?

KAUCHICH:

Yeah.

MOORE:

Okay. Wait a minute, here you have 1921.

KAUCHICH:

Yeah. I came here 1921.

MOORE:

Uh-huh. But the third of April of what year did you leave? 1921?

KAUCHICH:

Yeah.

MOORE:

Okay. Okay, so you were with, you didn't have your own cabin, but how did you sleep in your . . .

KAUCHICH:

Well, we had, you know, just, I don't know how to tell you.

MOORE:

Bunk beds?

KAUCHICH:

Yeah.

MOORE:

Okay. And did you have sheets and everything?

KAUCHICH:

Yeah.

MOORE:

Okay. And tell me about the trip. What do you remember about that boat trip?

KAUCHICH:

Well, I don't know. All the others were kind of sick and . . .

MOORE:

All the others were sick?

KAUCHICH:

Yeah.

MOORE:

Okay. All the others were sick. Was it a rough voyage?

KAUCHICH:

Yeah.

MOORE:

Were there storms?

KAUCHICH:

Yeah.

MOORE:

And were you frightened?

KAUCHICH:

No.

MOORE:

No.

KAUCHICH:

I know when I went to get the, that I was going to go and get for, I don't know, for the meal, you know. And I know when I was coming up on it, and the water was coming over. ( she laughs ) And they said, "Aren't you afraid to go?" I said, "Well, it's going to wash me up."

MOORE:

And how did you eat?

KAUCHICH:

Doesn't make no difference. It was Italian, more Italian.

MOORE:

Italian food?

KAUCHICH:

Yeah.

MOORE:

And was, how was the food?

KAUCHICH:

It was okay. You know, I wasn't spoiled.

MOORE:

Yeah. And so how did you eat the food? Did you go to a place to eat?

KAUCHICH:

No. Oh, yeah, we had it separate. We had separate.

MOORE:

And did you, were you able to go on deck at all?

KAUCHICH:

Oh, yeah.

MOORE:

Was there any entertainment?

KAUCHICH:

Sometimes I, sometimes they tell us not to go up because it was too stormy, you know. But I did it. I didn't care. I hold on the side, and I go. ( she laughs ) I was ornery, you know.

MOORE:

( she laughs ) Okay. So did you remember seeing land for the first time?

KAUCHICH:

What do you mean?

MOORE:

When the boat got into the harbor, what happened? How long was the trip?

KAUCHICH:

How long was the trip?

MOORE:

Yeah, the boat trip.

KAUCHICH:

When we come to the, was it the, did we get out in New York? Now I don't really . . .

MOORE:

Okay. So let me just say, did anything happen on the boat unusual? Did anyone die? Did anyone . . .

KAUCHICH:

No.

MOORE:

Nothing . . .

KAUCHICH:

I don't remember them telling you whether you would die, you know.

MOORE:

Okay. And when you came into the harbor, New York Harbor, do you remember seeing the Statue of Liberty?

KAUCHICH:

Yeah.

MOORE:

And what was that like?

KAUCHICH:

Yeah. ( she laughs )

MOORE:

Do you remember seeing it?

KAUCHICH:

Yeah.

MOORE:

Did you know what it was?

KAUCHICH:

Yeah.

MOORE:

And what happened on the boat, then? What was the boat like when you first saw the Statue of Liberty? Was everybody on deck?

KAUCHICH:

Oh, yeah, they were, you know.

MOORE:

So do you remember when they saw land for the first time?

KAUCHICH:

Yeah.

MOORE:

What happened? Tell me.

KAUCHICH:

I don't know.

MOORE:

Okay.

KAUCHICH:

I wasn't paying attention.

MOORE:

( she laughs ) Okay. Do you remember seeing the New York skyline, the buildings?

KAUCHICH:

Yeah.

MOORE:

And what did you think?

KAUCHICH:

Buildings, and that's all. No difference.

MOORE:

Do you remember Ellis Island?

KAUCHICH:

Yeah.

MOORE:

What happened with the boat, then? The boat, how did you get from the boat to Ellis Island?

KAUCHICH:

How did I get on the boat?

MOORE:

From the boat.

KAUCHICH:

Oh, from the boat.

MOORE:

To Ellis Island. How did, was there another boat?

KAUCHICH:

No, I don't think so.

MOORE:

Did they pull right up to Ellis Island?

KAUCHICH:

Yeah. I don't think, I don't remember that that I, that we would go in any other boat.

MOORE:

Okay. So you pulled right into Ellis Island. What do you remember about Ellis Island?

KAUCHICH:

I don't know what I can tell you.

MOORE:

No. Did they give you an examination?

KAUCHICH:

Yeah, they did.

MOORE:

What happened?

KAUCHICH:

They did, when we come there, you know, they always did, just like in Trieste, over there, and then when we come here, too.

MOORE:

And what, did they make you take your clothes off?

KAUCHICH:

Yeah.

MOORE:

What did they check? What were they checking for?

KAUCHICH:

Mostly (?) lice. ( she laughs )

MOORE:

They were checking for lice. Now, did, were you at any time worried that you would not be allowed in the country? Was anyone worried that they'd send them back?

KAUCHICH:

Not that I, not that I know.

MOORE:

Now, do you remember coming into Ellis Island? Do you remember Ellis Island at all?

KAUCHICH:

Yeah.

MOORE:

What did it look like to you? How would you talk about Ellis Island? Were there lots of people?

KAUCHICH:

Oh, yeah. It was lots of people.

MOORE:

Crowded?

KAUCHICH:

Yeah, it was.

MOORE:

How were the conditions?

KAUCHICH:

Well, we went there, and then we went to a cafe, you know, it was. I didn't have to go because I had enough stuff in before. But Mitzy's . . .

MOORE:

Relatives.

KAUCHICH:

Relative. He said that he needs some money, and I gave him a couple of dollars to go.

MOORE:

Did you need money to get through? Did they ask you . . .

KAUCHICH:

Well, I had my, I had my money. My dad sent it, you know.

MOORE:

And, all right. You didn't speak any English, you said.

KAUCHICH:

No.

MOORE:

Did they speak Slovenian to you?

KAUCHICH:

I don't know how they did, but they did, I was surprised, and I even think now lots of times how did, when they went for the cafe and that, how they could ask for it? Maybe it was that they talked Slovenian, that it was somebody.

MOORE:

How about your papers? Did they look at your papers?

KAUCHICH:

No.

MOORE:

Your passport?

KAUCHICH:

No. I didn't have no trouble about it.

MOORE:

You didn't have any trouble.

KAUCHICH:

No, I didn't have no trouble. And when we come there, they had all ready for us for the train, for all three days, you know, the food.

MOORE:

How did they have the food given to you? Was it in a basket, or a box?

KAUCHICH:

A box.

MOORE:

A box of food they made for you, okay. So were people polite and nice to you on Ellis Island?

KAUCHICH:

That's all I can think, really.

MOORE:

And was there any entertainment?

KAUCHICH:

No, I don't know.

MOORE:

All right. So you went, and you're going on the train. What, how did you get to the train from Ellis Island?

KAUCHICH:

I don't really remember how we did, how we did that. I was too happy to go. ( she laughs )

MOORE:

You were so happy. So when you got on the train, do you remember the train trip?

KAUCHICH:

Yeah.

MOORE:

To Rock Springs.

KAUCHICH:

Yeah.

MOORE:

Did you change trains anywhere?

KAUCHICH:

I don't think so. I don't remember that we would change any trains.

MOORE:

Was there anything new that you'd never seen before on that train? Do you remember any food or any . . .

KAUCHICH:

Sure, the chewing gum. ( she laughs )

MOORE:

Chewing gum. What happened with chewing gum? Tell us what happened.

KAUCHICH:

( she laughs ) I didn't want to have the chewing gum because it was, as I said, it was a nasty noodle.

MOORE:

A nasty noodle. Someone offered you chewing gum?

KAUCHICH:

Yeah.

MOORE:

Who?

KAUCHICH:

The, what do you call him?

MOORE:

The porter on the train?

KAUCHICH:

Yeah, yeah. He was unwrapping them, and he put like that. ( she demonstrates loud chewing ) And he chewed. ( she laughs ) I said I wouldn't eat that dirty noodle. ( they laugh )

MOORE:

All right. How about anything else? Any fruit you had never seen?

KAUCHICH:

Well, we had all the, you know, all the kinds.

MOORE:

Okay. So you got to Rock Springs and what happened?

KAUCHICH:

When we come to Rock Springs, we come to, down there. And we, Mr., uh, Pivik [ph], Mary Pivik's [ph] dad, he come and pick us up.

MOORE:

In what? What did he . . .

KAUCHICH:

I think it was that, I don't think that he had a car. I think it was the taxi man, yeah.

MOORE:

And what was he, a horse and buggy, or was it a car?

KAUCHICH:

A car.

MOORE:

It was a car, but a taxi car.

KAUCHICH:

Oh, yeah.

MOORE:

I see. Okay. A taxi car. So you came, and where did you go from there? Where was your father living?

KAUCHICH:

My father was living down on the lower, by the creek.

MOORE:

By the creek. And was he at the train station? Was he there waiting for you?

KAUCHICH:

No.

MOORE:

No.

KAUCHICH:

No. But he was waiting at the Larry Pivik's [ph] house. And we come there, and when Mrs. Pivik's [ph] sister come in the house, and she said, "This kind of a house," she said, "we had a better house in old country."

MOORE:

And what did you think about the houses?

KAUCHICH:

I didn't care nothing. I didn't care nothing.

MOORE:

Were you happy to see your father?

KAUCHICH:

Well, yes, I was, but, you know, I just thought I could come to a better looking place than it was here, you know, because it was so much dust and everything, you know.

MOORE:

So you were surprised by the area.

KAUCHICH:

Yeah.

MOORE:

And . . .

KAUCHICH:

If it was like it is now it would be okay, but it wasn't then.

MOORE:

Then it was what, like desert?

KAUCHICH:

Oh, cripes, what do you think? This is like heaven now.

MOORE:

And what was the address? Do you remember the address that your dad was at, living?

KAUCHICH:

Well, I wouldn't know, because my dad had a post office box.

MOORE:

Oh, I see, yeah. Okay. So you came here, and what, did they give you a big dinner? What happened when you went to the house? Piviks [ph] is that their name? What did you do when you got here then? How did you settle in?

KAUCHICH:

Well, my dad arranged that I would stay, oh, you can kill me, I can't say the name.

MOORE:

You stayed with some people?

KAUCHICH:

Yeah.

MOORE:

Okay.

KAUCHICH:

Not, see, I could go to Reliance and stay with my cousin, but they didn't like it that I come here. Oh . . .

MOORE:

So you went to stay with some people.

KAUCHICH:

Yeah.

MOORE:

And what did you . . .

KAUCHICH:

It was a Croatian lady.

MOORE:

And what type of house did she have?

KAUCHICH:

She had okay.

MOORE:

Was there, how was it heated, the house?

KAUCHICH:

With wood.

MOORE:

Wood stove.

KAUCHICH:

Yeah.

MOORE:

And how big was the house?

KAUCHICH:

She had a big house. They had a big, you know, it was down on a lower street.

MOORE:

Yeah. And how many rooms was that house?

KAUCHICH:

She had two bedrooms, three bedrooms, and a big living room and kitchen all together, you know.

MOORE:

Your father was working in the mine. What did you start working as?

KAUCHICH:

Hmm?

MOORE:

Did you start to work very soon? Did you go to work?

KAUCHICH:

Who?

MOORE:

You.

KAUCHICH:

Me? I went to look for the job, because I want to pay my dad back what he spent for me. And when I went to ask that, by the way, he says that motel down there, I went to ask that, and they said, "She can't speak English." So there wasn't, I didn't get the job. Then I went to, oh, Purlick [ph], Frank Purlick [ph]. They had a butcher shop on the (?). I went over there, there. They asked me to come. I was working there for a while, and my dad didn't want it that I would come home late in the evenings. He wanted so I work only the day time. And, I have to tell you the picture. Then the people say that they're going to, you see, that time, the butcher's out in the country. They take the meat there, and then they have to, went to collect it, for what they owe. And this girl said to me, she said, "You're going to go with us. Mama said you're going to go with us." And when I told my dad that I'm going to go, and he said, "They're not going to use you for advertisement." ( she laughs ) He said, "They're not going to use you for advertisement." He said, "You quit working there." So she come and pay me when I did, that time. And then after I just, down on the lower street, wherever it was, babysitter. And I helped.

MOORE:

How did you learn English? How was it learning English?

KAUCHICH:

You'd be kind of surprised. When I was down on the, after, when I got married, I was down on M Street, and it was this French girl.

MOORE:

Oh, hold on, hold on. I'm going to have to go to the bathroom . . . END OF SIDE ONE, TAPE TWO BEGINNING OF SIDE TWO, TAPE TWO

MOORE:

How did you learn English? Was it difficult?

KAUCHICH:

No. That's one thing I have to tell you. When I was down, after I was married and I was down on M Street, and this girl, like we rent for a month, she come and she knock on the door. She wouldn't come in, and she knock, knock, knock. She opened the door a little bit and she said, "Knock, knock." I had to say, "Knock." I had to say, "Come in." Then she come in, she take a hold of my hair, and she was saying, "Hair, hair." I have to say, "Hair." Then she went to the stove and she put finger on the stove. "Ouch!" I have to say, "Ouch." She put that finger on the floor, she said, "Floor, floor." I have to repeat that. So I, it wasn't really, it wasn't really hard for me to learn.

MOORE:

She taught you.

KAUCHICH:

She taught me lots.

MOORE:

Did anybody call you any names, ever, for being foreign? Did anybody call you any names for being from Slovenia?

KAUCHICH:

No, not that I remember.

MOORE:

So no one ever said any bad things to you?

KAUCHICH:

Oh, no, no, no, no. I was too (?) to say anything to me about that.

MOORE:

Did you continue your religious life? Did you go to church when you came here?

KAUCHICH:

Yeah.

MOORE:

Which church did you go to?

KAUCHICH:

Northside.

MOORE:

Northside.

KAUCHICH:

Yeah.

MOORE:

And were you as religious here as you were back in the old country?

KAUCHICH:

I went every Sunday.

MOORE:

Every Sunday. How about your father? Did he continue to go to church?

KAUCHICH:

Yeah.

MOORE:

And did he learn English?

KAUCHICH:

But then, yeah. I don't know how he did, but he learned English, too.

MOORE:

Now, you said your father went back to Yugoslavia, I mean, to Slovenia. How, you met your husband. Where did you meet your husband?

KAUCHICH:

( she laughs ) I'm going to tell you that story again. I was thinking, "What am I going to do? I can't get a job to go to work someplace." And if I get married, I'm going to cook for my husband. ( she laughs ) So I stayed with my dad, and I have the difference people if they want, clean the house or something like that, and I was all the time. And then my dad did not want that anybody would use me to be, to advertise.

MOORE:

Advertise what?

KAUCHICH:

Me!

MOORE:

Oh. Okay.

KAUCHICH:

He didn't want that. If somebody want me, they have to come here.

MOORE:

Okay, okay.

KAUCHICH:

So, anyway, Steve came once and he said, he asked me to go to the show. We went to the show. We went, the second time we went to the show.

MOORE:

What was playing? What show was playing?

KAUCHICH:

Oh, what, I didn't even look at the show. ( they laugh ) Well, am I telling you the truth, or what? ( they laugh )

MOORE:

Okay.

KAUCHICH:

Anyway, he was there. The third time, when he come, he said, and my dad was there, and he was there, Steve was at my bed in the corner, and I was at my bed. And he said, you know, he said, "I would like to get married and settle down. Would you marry me?"

MOORE:

What did you say?

KAUCHICH:

I say, "I don't know." Because, you see, it's all the time like that, like it still is that. The people don't have anything to say before somebody gets married. After you get married you are a drunkard, you're a fighter, and everything else. And I was worried about that.

MOORE:

And was Steve Slovenian? Was Steve Slovenian?

KAUCHICH:

Yeah.

MOORE:

Was he born in this country?

KAUCHICH:

No.

MOORE:

He was born in . . .

KAUCHICH:

In Yugoslavia.

MOORE:

In Yugoslavia.

KAUCHICH:

( she coughs ) And he, when I said, I said to him, "I don't know." I said, "I want to go to work to pay my dad for the . . ."

MOORE:

Trip.

KAUCHICH:

Trip. He said, "No. I'm going to pay him." I said, "That's just like buying a cow." I said, "Where you're going to pay for, you know." And he said, you know that he never mentioned, we were married for forty-three years and he never mentioned.

MOORE:

The fact that he paid your dad?

KAUCHICH:

Huh?

MOORE:

The fact that he paid your dad?

KAUCHICH:

Yeah.

MOORE:

He never mentioned.

KAUCHICH:

Never, never.

MOORE:

And you respected him for that?

KAUCHICH:

Oh, I did for a lot of things. When we were married for a couple of years, he was going up. They had no houses here. Only sagebrush and weeds. And he didn't come home. He was soliciting for the lodge members, and he didn't come home. And I went to the neighbor to ask if I can use the telephone. I called a taxi up to give me a ride up this way, oh, Lord, up to the Central Coal Company, and I couldn't find him no place. Because the people say he's drunkard, he's gambler and everything, and fighter.

MOORE:

Who said he was?

KAUCHICH:

Oh, people! You don't know what the people are after when they're like that.

MOORE:

Was he, did he drink and gamble?

KAUCHICH:

He never, he never did get drunk unless if I was there.

MOORE:

Yeah.

KAUCHICH:

Yeah. Anyway, then it was, when I come home, he was home. He said, "Where you been?" "Looking for you." And I said, "I'm not going to stay with you." I said, "Because," I said, he said, "Why not?" I said, "You're going to go someplace and the people are going to give you homemade wine." He liked that homemade wine. I said, "They give you that, and you're going to get drunk and walk on a shortcut through the sage brush, and you're going to break your leg and I'm going to worry like that." He said, "What kind of a wife are you? You worry about me, and you want to go away from me." I said, "Oh, well." I said, "I'm glad that you're older than I am. You got more sense." And he said to me, "You got plenty of sense, but you don't want to use it." And that pleases me, too, when he said that I got plenty of sense and I don't want to use it. Well, that was good, what he said, you know. ( they laugh )

MOORE:

Now, did you have children?

KAUCHICH:

Yeah.

MOORE:

How many children did you have?

KAUCHICH:

I had a daughter. She was sick for twenty years. She had sclerosis. And I got a son. He's working for Mountainview.

MOORE:

Now, your father, you said, never made it to your wedding. He went back.

KAUCHICH:

Yeah. He was, my dad was here when I . . .

MOORE:

He was here when you got married. I see.

KAUCHICH:

Yeah.

MOORE:

Oh, okay, I misunderstood. And so did your father ever go back to . . .

KAUCHICH:

Yeah.

MOORE:

What year?

KAUCHICH:

Right after I got married he went back.

MOORE:

Oh, he went back after you got married.

KAUCHICH:

Yeah.

MOORE:

Okay. And so, he went back to your stepmother?

KAUCHICH:

Yeah.

MOORE:

Did, why did he go back?

KAUCHICH:

Why did he go back? Well, wouldn't he like stepmother?

MOORE:

So he actually came to this country to make money, and then to go back.

KAUCHICH:

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

MOORE:

Was he happy he went back later?

KAUCHICH:

Oh, yeah. They, I don't know. When I came here I said to my dad, "How much money you got in the bank?" My dad said, "I don't have no money in the bank. Salooner keeps my money." You know, they had a habit, those bachelors. They didn't put the money in the bank. They go to the salooner, and salooner going to keep the money for them. Who gets the interest? Salooner. So, anyway, I said to my dad, "How much money you got in the bank?" He said, "No, salooner keeps it." I was mad. I said, "Who gets the interest?" He said, "Where did you come from, that you know all those things?" I told my dad, I said, "I wasn't with the dumb people." I said, "I was with the people that they know what they are doing." So I asked him to go and get to the bank and get the money out. I went to the bank. Mr. Planner was working there, and I went to the bank with him, and Mr. Planner was talking Slovenian, you know, and English. So anyway, I got that straight. When my dad got the first check after that, I wanted to take it to the bank, and it was seventy-six dollars and sixty-five cents, sixty-seven cents. And when my dad was, and a miner's pension, I mean, they paid on the fifteenth and at the end of the month. Anyway, when my dad went the next day he put the check there, but he signed it, because he was thinking that he's going to go to the salooner, and I didn't want him to go, so the check was signed. The next day when my dad went to work, I took that check and I took it to the bank. Mr. Planner asked me, "How much you want to leave in here?" "Oh," I said, "just give me six dollars and seventy-six cents." ( she laughs ) So I left that money, and when my dad went to old country he was boasting how much money he had in the bank. Everybody was thinking about that. I didn't correct after, when the people were saying that my dad was boasting how much money he got in the bank.

MOORE:

Was your father ever injured in the mines? Did he have . . .

KAUCHICH:

No.

MOORE:

He had an okay time here.

KAUCHICH:

No, no.

MOORE:

Okay. Tell me what happened then. Did you ever want to go back to live? Did you ever want to go back?

KAUCHICH:

To live?

MOORE:

Yeah.

KAUCHICH:

I was back, but I didn't go to live.

MOORE:

You never thought about going back to Slovenia.

KAUCHICH:

No.

MOORE:

Why not?

KAUCHICH:

I got my son here.

MOORE:

And what about life here? Is it as good here?

KAUCHICH:

What?

MOORE:

Was life good here for you?

KAUCHICH:

Well, I had hard time when my daughter was sick, and my husband was sick. But about that, I have to say all the time that I don't regret that. Because when my husband was, he died in 1965, and my daughter died 1966. And when he was, twenty minutes before he died, he said, "Please," he said, "don't cry after I die." He says, "I'm too sick to live like that, and I don't want you to cry." And I have that since I was eight years old when my dad was crying for my stepmother, you know. I told you that. Yeah. So I had that in my mind all the time, that I, don't cry for those like they die. We all have to die anyway. So I didn't. And then when my daughter died, she was like that. I went shopping all the time for her, you know. I took care, you know. She was married, and that. And I went shopping all the time. And once, when I come home on Wednesday, I went shopping on Wednesdays and Fridays. And when I went shopping, come home on Wednesday, I looked at her and I said, "Who was here?" She said, "Why?" I said, "I thought you had candy in the mouth." She had, that was before she died, you know. And she correct her mouth, the next day it was good. When I went Friday again, I come home, and I have to feed her because she couldn't eat herself. Anyway, it was, then on Monday when her husband had to go to work, and he called me up, he called me up six, yeah, six-thirty, no, five-thirty, because six o'clock he had to go to work for (?). And he called me up. He said, "I can't wake her up to take her to the bathroom." I said, "She must be in a coma." The way she acted the week before, you know. And so when I called doctor up, I said, "Go down." And he said, "Are you going to be there?" I said, "Yeah, I'm going to go down there now." When I come down, Dr. (?), it was, and he said to my son-in-law, "Don't you go to work. This is the last day you see her." He said, "You stay home." So he didn't go to work, and she died. He said that she's going to die at midnight, but she died twenty minutes after that.

MOORE:

Now, you've had rough times here.

KAUCHICH:

That was the only rough time I had.

MOORE:

Was that tragedy, yeah.

KAUCHICH:

It, after it was, my son is good. Sometimes I feel I think a little bit too much.

MOORE:

So when you look back on your life are you happy you came to the United States?

KAUCHICH:

Especially now I am.

MOORE:

Now you are.

KAUCHICH:

Yeah, really. I've been, I never was, but I would like to go back. When I got married, and then when my daughter was sick, I wouldn't think about going back. I liked for me to take care of them, my daughter and my husband, both of them. And then, after, when they died, then the life changed, changed for me.

MOORE:

And do you think of yourself as American or as Slovenian?

KAUCHICH:

I am, I went to citizenship. When I had here once on a table here all kind of junk from my closet. My son come here, pushed that aside. Before he all the time say, if I ask him anything about a job, "Oh, Mama, you don't understand. All the time you don't understand." And then the time when I had my, all the junk here on the table and he pushed that to the side, and he said, "Oh, Mama, please don't waste those." It was my citizenship cards. They both were excellent. ( she laughs ) And he said, "I got them someplace. I don't know where I got them." That they were all, both good. It was Mr., uh, I can't say the name, the names now, they were.

MOORE:

So you can say that especially now you're happy about . . .

KAUCHICH:

I am, I am.

MOORE:

Well, I'd like to thank you on behalf of the Ellis Island project for telling us your, information about your life.

KAUCHICH:

I am, I am happy, really.

MOORE:

All right. This is Kate Moore in Rock Springs, Wyoming on July 4, 1994, signing off for the Ellis Island Oral History Project.

KAUCHICH:

I got pretty good luck with his son. He's with Mountainview, you know . . .