Romania Nine - Text
Subject is female, born 1976 in Bucharest. She is a theatre director. Recorded November 2005 by Mark Ingram and his students. Edited September 9, 2006 by Paul Meier. Running time: 04:30.
TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH
[Interviewer: Grandpa’s pigs… (Laughs.)]
Oh no. My grandpa didn’t – my grandfather didn’t have pigs. Well, he had a few, like, we just like raise them, you know. One. And then you get cut at Christmas, and then, you know, start over. (Laughs.) And the next…
[Interviewer: Okay. And always at Christmas?]
Yeah, well, that’s when you cut the pigs. You cut the pig for Christmas, pretty much. And you cut the lamb for Easter, right?
[Interviewer: Oh, okay.]
And, uh, so, you know, like, you couldn’t really find so much meats on the market. Sometimes of course people would grow, uh, people who had yards, would grow their own animals, so my grandfather had – always had a pig. Um, and had tons of chicken and had, like, (unclear) and tur… No, he wouldn’t cut the turkey, he just like the turkey too much. So I think that turkey live to be a long, well, I don’t know. Yeah, is it a voice-activated thing?
[Interviewer: No, it’s still turning…]
Well, yeah, but it stopped for a second. I saw it.
[Interviewer: I heard that.]
Yeah. So anyway, what else shall I tell you about my grandfather’s animals? He didn’t really – he didn’t only have animals. The animals were pretty, you know, like… part of the yard. He had a big, like, vegetable garden.
[Interviewer: Okay.]
And, uh, he had rows and rows of vegetables and my favorite were the carrots ‘cause I had never had that. So I would always go and, you know, steal carrots from the garden and (laughs) from the vegetable garden, and feed it to the – to the rabbit. My grandmother would ge- my grandfather would get really mad ‘cause his carrots were missing. And what else? We had the cherry, like, really bi- it made big cherries. They were also, like, full of worms. All the time. Yeah, ‘cause, you know, you need to, like, spray them and stuff and…
[Interviewer: Okay.]
Those ones are renowned for getting worms. Like, it’s a specific type of cherry. They’re really big and sweet, and really great if you can catch them without worms. (Laughs.) So, like, in the – in – whe-when is it that the cherries are, uh, somewhere in the spring, right?
[Interviewer: Yeah.]
Before the summer. So I just climb up in the tree and, like, sit there for hours up in the tree eating cherries right off the branches.
UNSCRIPTED SPEECH TRANSCRIBED BY JON HUNTER, MARCH 25, 2008. AMENDED BY MARK INGRAM, AUGUST 30, 2008.