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TRANSCRIBER: Susanne Dixon Bywater - March 16, 2011 1
SALLY KEMMLER: Mrs. Farley, could you please tell us your full
name?
KRYSTYNA FARLEY: My name is Krystyna Stachowitz Slowkova
Zukien(ph) Farley.
KEMMLER: Thank you. And your birth date?
FARLEY: XXXXXXXXXX 1925.
KEMMLER: All right. And we're interviewing Mrs. Farley in her
home in New Britain and today is the --
FARLEY: 10th.
KEMMLER: 10th? Right.
FARLEY: March 10th.
KEMMLER: Yes.
FARLEY: Today is the birthday of my late father. He will be so
old. He died in the 192- -- 1900.
KEMMLER: Okay. And this is Sally Kemmler attending the interview
and I am working with the Veterans History Project at Central
Connecticut State University.
And Mrs. Farley, you were in the Polish army by British
command and your service dates were March 27th, 1943 to
October 31, 1947, and you served in Iran, Iraq, Palestine,
Egypt, Italy, and England; is that right?
FARLEY: Yes. Yes.
KEMMLER: And were you drafted or did you enlist?
FARLEY: No. I enlist in -- I joined the military service in Iran
because I was thinking about I gonna a drive a car, so I sent
my youngest sister to Africa, two my brothers to cadets and I
joined the military service, was a surprise because I never
drove the car. I was working in the hospital.
KEMMLER: How do you come to be living in Iran?
FARLEY: Because we -- I was a prisoner in Russia and General
Sikorsky and Stalin make a pact and they let us free, so
nobody want to take us in. Shah of Iran took us in. So I was
in Tehran and that's where I joined the military service.
KEMMLER: Okay. So you were born in Poland and then you became a
prisoner?
FARLEY: Yes. I born in Poland. The 10th of the July, 1940, we
were taken to Russian prison, in the Dipural Molotowski
Oblisht Dibriskryan Nicoliski Shar Soviet(ph). That's the
place where we were born and we stayed there. We have to cut
the big trees and put them next to the river so in spring they
will going to the water and going to the places where that's
supposed to be.
KEMMLER: So when you left the prison camp, then you had to also
leave Poland?
FARLEY: No. We travelled through the whole Russia. I remember
on a little boats and things like that. There was plenty
sickness. We were coming to the South Russian Tashkan. I
remember on the boat there was so many children sick, they
having diarrhea and everything. And one of the Jewish
gentleman walking by and he wants one of my blanket. So I
says, "Well, what about changing the blanket for a bottle of
***," so he did. And I was giving a teaspoon of *** to
each child that was sick and that help them for the diarrhea,
you know. That's the only medicine we have.
But we come to the South Russia, and from South Russia, we
come to Kazakhstan from Tashkan to KAzakhstan. They give us
to farmers to work, and we would there for a while and find
out that in Russia, the Sikorsky and Stalin, they were getting
a pact and making the Polish military service under the
British command. So my father left us and he went first and
leave us alone. We didn't know that they was taking the
children to the orphanage. My mother went to the town and
find out that all the children almost left. Just a camp was
left alone, so she sent us to the orphanage. But she was left
because my older sister was born 1923 and they was only taking
people 1925, children and since I was -- my mother didn't want
to lie. If she lie, we all will left. But she didn't lie, so
I left with my two youngest brothers and sister and we come to
Persia.
KEMMLER: Okay. And so how did you come to join the army? How
old were you then?
FARLEY: I was -- I was lying about my age. I says that I'm a
year older and they couldn't check because they didn't know
that I have my original birth certificate. And I says I born
1924 and then I joined the military service and I was happy.
Until I come to United States, I use my birth certificate and
straighten up my age that I born in 1925.
KEMMLER: So you had the opportunity to join the British army in
Iran and you took that opportunity?
FARLEY: I tell you something, that was maybe very good because if
I want to travel by myself to Palestine, Egypt, Italy, Iraq,
Iran, I wouldn't be able to afford it. With the military
service, I did. And that was maybe big experience and besides
we had the uniform, we had the food, we had everything.
Because coming from Russia, we were very hungry. I remember
in Persia, they treat us with the rice in the morning, rice
noon hour, rice for supper and rice for desert. I remember
doing the stuffed cabbage and instead of using the rice, I
grated the potatoes because I says I'm sick and tired of the
rice. But we were -- in the military service we had
everything that we needed and I enjoyed.
KEMMLER: Okay. Do you remember the first days that you were in
the service?
FARLEY: Yes, I remember. There was a three platoons and they
were treating -- I mean teaching us how to march, how to --
how to turn, everything. They give us a gentlemen that he
couldn't pronounce the R. So I was the last one in the
marching. I was always make fun of him. So he was for three
days and he quit. The third day they give us a lady but she
have a very soft voice and if she say "Attention," we barely
could hear it. So in the break time, we sit down and I'd get
up and I scream "attention" and everybody get up, even she
did. And she says to me, "You so smart, you treat those
children," and I did command them and the filad(ph) we have
over there, passing by the generals and everything, our
platoon was the last one and get the first prize. And she
called me from -- the thanks was still stand with it. She
says, "Oh Honichka Stachowitz, dominia(ph)." So I come in.
She says, "She's the one that teached the platoon," so she
says to me, "Thank you," and I salute, turn back, and go back
to the thing.
KEMMLER: So you were helped -- you helped the people in charge
because you had a natural command of the children?
FARLEY: I had a loud voice and --
KEMMLER: Yeah.
FARLEY: -- in fact, I'm still having that loud voice. I can't
sing any more because something is wrong with my throat.
KEMMLER: Yeah.
FARLEY: I have a froggy voice, but I did used to sing with the
musician.
KEMMLER: So what did it feel like being in the army?
FARLEY: I tell you the truth, I like it. I enjoy it because the
first thing, I sent one of my daughter to the military service
over here. I tell her it's a beautiful life, you have
company, you know everything. And I said she was a sergeant
and was working in intelligence, because I think
three-quarters of our youngsters should go over there because
they will learn something. First of all, they will learn
discipline.
See, our people doesn't have no discipline. I took the
group to Poland for international dance festival. You tell
the child to come eight-thirty to the bus, he comes nine
o'clock, look at you and says, "Who are you to tell me to come
nine o'clock?" Our people doesn't has no discipline that
much. That's why that would be nice. I have a grandson going
to Afghanistan today. Today he's going to Afghanistan for the
third time because he was twice in Iraq, he was once in
Afghanistan, now he's going the fourth time.
KEMMLER: Okay.
FARLEY: My sister's son is lieutenant colonel. He was in the air
force. Yes. I was his retirement. So we're military family.
KEMMLER: I guess so. Do you remember your instructors in the
military?
FARLEY: Not by the names.
KEMMLER: Yeah.
FARLEY: No. Not by the names. You see, for some reasons I
remember numbers, things like that, but names doesn't --
KEMMLER: So your training experience was good?
FARLEY: I know the officers Vosheleski(ph) and my husband's
military service because I was going to visiting my husband
and I was dealing with those things. One of them, Captain
Massercavitch was the witness to my first marriage. I had his
signature on my certificate.
KEMMLER: So when did you start with your service in the hospital?
FARLEY: They put us right away for about two months of training
and after that, they send us to first, second, and third
hospital. There was three hospitals and they divide us, you
KEMMLER: Yeah.
FARLEY: They need the young ladies to go and work.
KEMMLER: Okay. So your job was nurse's aide?
FARLEY: Yes.
KEMMLER: Okay. And where exactly did you start with that
assignment? Where were you then?
FARLEY: I was in Iraq. I was in Iran. I was in -- in -- in
Iraq, there was a big hospital. We were over there. In
Palestine, there was a hospital. In Egypt was a hospital. I
remember we used to cross Suez to go to the city and for a
visiting. But those hospitals was there.
KEMMLER: How many Polish people were in this unit?
FARLEY: That's was the -- the hospital was, you see we can't say
that that was a unit because the hospital always was the extra
people, less people, if they need somebody they come, you
know, for the ambulances and everything else. But I remember
we could go, for example, in Iraq, in our uniform, we can't go
to the movies or anyplace like that alone. So we have like
the ambulance, the driver come to pick us up, take us to the
movie, we go inside and after, he come and pick us and bring
us home. We couldn't go alone.
KEMMLER: So there were other people who had come to Iran from
Russia with you?
FARLEY: There was -- those people that they -- you see, we were
brought in Iran to like camp, the big camp. Some people go to
India. Some people go to Africa. Some people go to military
service, you know. They go to all different parts of the
world.
KEMMLER: Did you see combat?
FARLEY: In Italy, I had the wounded people. In Italy we had a
hospital during the World War Second, and three-quarters of
them at the first hospital have the worst wounded people in
the thing. But some of them was the gentleman -- I don't want
to say that on the disk --
KEMMLER: Okay.
FARLEY: -- have venereal disease.
KEMMLER: Oh, okay. Tell me about a couple of your most memorable
experiences that you had while you were in the British army.
FARLEY: You know, the most memorable experience is the -- first
of all, the training. For us women, to training with the guns
and everything else that was experience because you have to
shoot the gun, you have know how to operate, and everything
else. That was the first thing.
The second thing, I tell you something, in Italy, the
first transport of the sick people, that shook you down
because you never see anything like that, the person doesn't
have no hand, doesn't have no leg, you know, they're -- it's
blind, blood and everything. But the first amputation, I
remember there was a friend of mine from Russia. He wants me
to stay with him the time they going to amputate his legs. So
they start cutting the legs. I pass out. They have to carry
me out. That was experience. And after that, you get used to
it. You get used to it to see the blood and everything, till
you see your own blood.
In England, my older daughter -- I have children every
year like the '47, '48. The 47 child already was working and
I was changing the diaper for the second one and she grabbed
the bottle and ran outside and she fell down and the glass
broke down because it was glass bottle and the piece of glass
fell in her eyelid over here. So that things freeze you up.
The one thing I did I grabbed the child. I pulled the bottle
out. I stick the three fingers in so wouldn't bleed. And
over there it's no ambulance, no nothing. You have to -- so
my brother comes from work on the bicycle and he took doctor
and I walk mile and a half to the doctor so the doctor can put
the stitches on, but that blood kills me.
KEMMLER: And you were a prisoner of war in a camp. That was
before your military experience, but were you a prisoner of
FARLEY: Yes, I was in the -- you see, the thing is, they think
that my father was rich because he have so many acres of land.
The land was given to him after World War First. And they
thinking about that he is rich, so they took all of us like at
six o'clock in the morning, they come in. Russian people come
and take us to the train station and took us to Russia and we
will travel for 30 days. To the Dipural(ph)and we would
cutting the trees.
But the one things that I tell you that we find out, the
forest seems nobody ever was there. But we went to pick up
some blueberries and things in the summer, and what we find is
like an old shed, and in that shed was the able and to the
table was body with the handcuffs and everything attached to
that table so he couldn't move. He die over there. But my
father look at it and he says, "Kids, you go home and I gonna
bury him," and my father did bury him.
KEMMLER: Well, do you have any -- do you have any other
experiences that happened while were you in the military that
were memorable? I mean aside from the guns. I mean that was
completely new to you.
FARLEY: The going from Italy to England, we were going on a big
ship and that's was a war and there was a shooting and
everything else. I remember. But I was nosy. And I want to
see the boats, the boat looked, like, I didn't care about the
war or anything like that because you're young and you're
stupid. You don't think about it. So I was looking around
and the door of the cabin was open and there was a beautiful
eagle done from the silver papers. Those papers was taken
from a cigarette boxes, you know. And I says, "What a
beautiful eagle." And that officer that was with me, he says,
"Would you like to see it?"
I says, "Why not?" I wasn't thinking straight. I going
to the eagle and I hear the key in the door. I had experience
with that officer. I even bite his nose through. I was
covered with the blood completely and if we didn't was covered
(Interruption.)
KEMMLER: Oopsy. Let me just stop there for a second.
FARLEY: If that captain wouldn't be called to the captain,
because somebody called to the captain, want to see him, he
will probably *** me. And before he left, he takes the can
of pineapple. He put it to me and he says, "Wait for me and
eat that pineapple." I threw that pineapple after him and I
could come to my cabin. I was covered with the blood and
everything. I didn't tell him my name or nothing. He didn't
know me.
And we come to the -- that was in Iraq. We come to the
camp and I remember in the weekend that the officer lady come
and she says some kind of officer from Navy wants to see you.
She tell me his name.
I says, "I'm not home."
She says, "That's an officer."
I says, "You can put me to the prison," I says, "but I'm
not going to see him." I didn't go to see him. I says, "Pig
like that I don't see because I never saw him in my life," you
know, and I was looking for something else. So that was
experience and a half.
KEMMLER: And you were awarded some medals?
FARLEY: Yes. I had a few of them. I had King George medal. I
had the Star of Italy. I had a few of them here.
KEMMLER: How did you come to be awarded those medals?
FARLEY: I think they give it to the people that were in the
military service automatically.
KEMMLER: Uh-huh.
FARLEY: I don't think this is any special things, but this is
just --
KEMMLER: For your service?
FARLEY: Yes.
KEMMLER: Yeah. Okay. How did you stay in touch with your
family?
FARLEY: You know, in Iraq, I remember that my father went, left
us in Russia and he went before. He didn't know where the
father was. My mother was left in Russia with my oldest
sister, and I didn't know where my father was till I was
walking from a hospital, I think, to my tent and some driver
on a motorcycle was coming by, a soldier. Coming back and
forth and he was looking at me and I says to myself, I says,
"Oh, my God."
But he stopped the motorcycle and he says, "Are you Ms.
Stachowitz?"
I says, "Whose business is that?"
He says, "Don't you recognize me? I was in Russia with
you together. My name is Vladis Saborik(ph)." He says to me,
"Your father is over here."
I says, "Where?"
He says, "Take the pass. I gonna take you tomorrow."
And I come to my lady officer and I says, "I want a pass
because I find out my father."
So she says, "Another one find a father." Because a lot
of gals, if they have a elderly boyfriend or something, they
said this is the father. She says, "I let you go, but you
have to bring me a papers that he is your father." That's
what I did. That's how I find the father.
But I find over there and the father was having plenty of
money over here. So I sat on his lap. I says, "Hey, Pops,
what about this money?"
He says, "You need it for what?"
I says, "Pops, for makeup, for this, for that."
He says, "Take 'em. I'm going win tomorrow more then,"
because father plays the poker. So that's how I find my dad.
KEMMLER: That's great.
FARLEY: Then, I know my sister was in Africa, so I was writing a
letter to her, my younger sister. And my brother was in the
cadets, so we see each other. We know where the cadets were
and everything.
KEMMLER: So you knew where they were --
FARLEY: Yes.
KEMMLER: -- because they were in the service, too?
FARLEY: Yes.
KEMMLER: Okay.
FARLEY: Yes.
KEMMLER: What was the food like in the army?
FARLEY: Listen, if you young and you spend two years in Russian
prison and you don't have nothing to eat, any food was
delicious. And I mean the military service have good food.
Most of them was a lamb and everything. What we were doing,
there was three of us that we keep the company like that. So
we went and each one of us take for three people, so we have
nine portion for three gals and we were eating all the time
very good.
KEMMLER: You probably gained some weight back --
FARLEY: No.
KEMMLER: Didn't gain any?
FARLEY: No. Because we had the training and everything else and
you work and, you know, you're moving, you go to -- we was
also sending to the dances. Yes, the military service come to
the lady officer, they make us some kind of dance and they
want the ladies to come, so we go over there.
But one thing what we didn't do is give a last name and
what company we're from. We don't want to have any
attachments to it. My name is Krystyna. Last name? I don't
have a last name, and that's it. If they give us a ride,
couple of miles from the camp, then after we walk. We don't
want them to do anything, you know, like that.
And I tell you something, that was better than now. I
look now and you says it's sinful what those young gals are
doing. We having a fun but different fun. For example,
sometimes we walk. I had the one girlfriend here in West
Haven that we were in the military service together. She have
dark eyes, dark hair, beautiful build, gorgeous looking gal.
Another one is in Florida, still alive, 92 years old.
So sometimes we walk and we see a good-looking guys. I says,
"Gee, I'm so thirsty."
She says, "Funny, you thirsty? I'm thirsty, too."
I says, "Let's go and ask for some water." We go ask for
some water. We had a hell of a good time and we go home.
Nobody knows who we are and where we are from. Sometimes they
was -- they was ask and I says nothing, too. She married one
of the officer. Stephanie, yes. He pass away. Now she's
half blind, poor thing, but I'm still calling her. I still
call her because we had a hell of a good time.
KEMMLER: Did you have plenty of supplies?
FARLEY: Whatever we need, we have. We don't lack anything at
all.
KEMMLER: Yeah.
FARLEY: We had uniforms. We had hats and everything. Everything
was -- I mean, why the people complain now? I wish my
grandsons go. One of them went but the rest of them doesn't
want to go. I wish they go to military service.
KEMMLER: Did you feel stress?
FARLEY: No.
KEMMLER: Did you have a stressful job?
FARLEY: No. You see, I went to the -- I remember I was very shy
before till I had the friend that was working with me in the
hospital. She was ugly looking thing. She had red hair,
freckles, and everything, and she was older than me. She
says, "What's the matter with you?" She says, "Why you bawl?"
I says, "Somebody say something to me over in there in the
hospital."
She says, "You have a mouth? You feed it? Open it," she
says.
So I'm going on through the hospital and the one guy says
to me, "Nurse, how much material you need for a bra?"
I says, "You want one? You can borrow mine." And after I
say that, he never touch me. He never bother me. I come in
and I says, "Gee, she teach me something."
KEMMLER: That's funny. Was there something special you did for
good luck? You know some soldiers have a special charm or
whatever.
FARLEY: Never do anything for that.
KEMMLER: Didn't do that kind of stuff?
FARLEY: No. You see we had the good things because I know what
my father was in the 5th Division and ladies, we shouldn't
travel. There was no travel with the men soldier, you know.
KEMMLER: Yeah.
FARLEY: So we come in to visit Pops and he says he's going to
Jerusalem." I says, "Father, can we go with you?"
He says, "You know you can't go with us because --
I says, "Pops, why don't you go to the colonel and ask him."
So they let us go and the place where they supposed to check
the soldiers, we go under the men's coats and we hide, you
know, but we went to Jerusalem and any place we go, we could
see things because the guy that was talking about it, he says,
"Let the ladies come close here." There was only three of us,
so we have a chance to see everything, to travel. But in the
Black Sea, I almost drown because I don't know how to swim and
we were floating on the water because that sea is heavy with
the salt so can you float on the water. But one of the guys
was drowning and he hold me, and they were screaming let her
go, let her go. He was holding me. I went under the water
and I hold my nose so -- till I have to breathe and I inhaled
that salt and I was sick for a couple of months after.
KEMMLER: Oh, my goodness. So you did -- you were able to travel?
You were able to see things?
FARLEY: Yes.
KEMMLER: Yeah. What was the -- what was the city that impressed
the most when you travelled?
FARLEY: I tell you something. Egypt was beautiful. We were in
Cairo. It was very nice. We was in Palestine right in the
city. But I -- the best country I like, I think I like Italy.
In Italy is art and everything else. It's completely
different.
KEMMLER: Yeah.
FARLEY: It's really, really -- but you see, in Italy, life is in
the evening, not in the daytime. In the daytime, they had the
siesta, you know. They go sleep and stuff like that.
KEMMLER: Yeah.
FARLEY: In the evening, as soon as gets dark, the restaurants
open, they singing, they playing, they eating.
KEMMLER: What part of Italy were you serving?
FARLEY: I remember I was having my honeymoon in Pisa. And you
know what, somebody gives me a beautiful housecoat and
everything. And in that hotel must be mice because I had the
holes all over the things, you know.
KEMMLER: Wow.
FARLEY: But all Italy, I was in Republic San Marino. That's a
special republic. They don't have the police over there.
They hire the policemens from Italy, but they speak Italian
and, anyway, they had beautiful porcelain and very nice
churches.
KEMMLER: Yeah, it is. It's beautiful country. Beautiful. Okay.
Did you play pranks on each other? Did you --
FARLEY: Oh, yes.
KEMMLER: Oh, you did?
FARLEY: Oh, yes. I have a lady officer -- not officer, older
than me and she was in my tent, you know, and she always
squeal on all of us. Sometimes you want to come late or
something, you know. So what we did? We elevate her bed.
You know there was a metal bed. We elevate the legs. If she
come in and sit down, she flopped down on the thing. She
looks at me. I says, "Is anything happen to you?" You know,
I was really -- I was really bad. I was bad.
I remember in Tehran, they have like pools and those pools
have a ridges like that you can sit on it around, you know.
And we have the gentleman that come to visit us, so we sit
down on the pool things and he wants to smoke cigarette and I
just push him like that. He fell down to the water and I ran
home, you know. I come in and I don't know nothing. He come
in all soaking wet. I says, "What the matter, you fell down
or something?" I always did something no good, but.
KEMMLER: So you were 18 when you went into the service? And you
told them were you older?
FARLEY: I tell them I am 19. And I married, I was 21. The first
child I have -- I married in '25 -- I mean 1945 and I had the
first child in '47.
KEMMLER: So you were still in the service when you married?
FARLEY: Yes.
KEMMLER: So that was no problem?
FARLEY: That was my wedding pictures.
KEMMLER: In your uniform, yeah.
FARLEY: That's my wedding pictures.
KEMMLER: So that was no problem for them for you to be married?
They didn't mind about that?
FARLEY: No. But you see, to wait for a gown, to permission for a
gown, you have to have six weeks, but --
KEMMLER: Uh-huh.
FARLEY: -- but we want to marry now.
KEMMLER: Yes. Was your husband in the service, too?
FARLEY: Yes.
KEMMLER: Okay. And was he --
FARLEY: He was my patient. He was my patient. And, you know
what, he did? I bring him a meal so he put all the cigarette
butts in the meal. He didn't eat any.
KEMMLER: He didn't like the food?
FARLEY: He just played the pranks on me.
KEMMLER: Ah.
FARLEY: He didn't know that I speak Italian. You know what
happened? I have two little gals that come to hospital -- and
you see over here, you had everything prepared. It's
delivered to you in the hospital. Over there, you have to do
it yourself. You have to bring the bread and slice it, you
know. And ends of the bread, I pick it up and I give it to
the kids. I remember one of the officer lady, the nurse, the
head nurse, she come to me and she says, "Why you giving that
to Italian? This is military food."
I says, "Sister, was you hungry in your life? Was you
ever hungry?" I says, "Do you have enough food," I says,
"because I didn't and instead to throw it out to the garbage,"
I says, "I rather give it to the kids." I says, "You want to
punish me, punish me, but," I said, "I'm still going to give
it to the kids. Those kids teach me how to speak Italian."
Italian was easy for us because that was Latin.
KEMMLER: So your husband was Italian?
FARLEY: No. He was Polish.
KEMMLER: Oh, he was Polish?
FARLEY: But if you go to the restaurant or something, you want
ice cream or something like that you have to say in Italian
because they don't understand Polish.
KEMMLER: So he was also a Polish person in the British army?
FARLEY: Yes.
KEMMLER: I see. Okay.
FARLEY: He was in the military that have like a Christmas tree on
the thing.
KEMMLER: Okay.
FARLEY: Because I had like a siren and my father had the bison
and my husband had the -- like a Christmas tree.
KEMMLER: Okay. Interesting. All right.
Did you -- what did you think of the soldiers in the army?
FARLEY: The soldiers are like soldiers. You -- you -- you
find -- like in regular life, you find all different
personality. But you see the Polish soldier wasn't ninnies
like they have over here now. They was a soldier. I remember
one thing. We had a beautiful girl and they supposed to be
married in the next week and he was miner that goes and looks
for mines. He flew up to the pieces, you know.
KEMMLER: Oh.
FARLEY: But they wasn't -- they wasn't sissies like that, you
know. First of all, there was no narcotics like now. They
had pills for that, pills for this. But they had wine over
there. They get drunk and they do whatever they did, you
know. But there was completely different life.
KEMMLER: Yeah. Did you keep a diary?
FARLEY: No.
KEMMLER: Didn't keep a diary. Okay.
FARLEY: We were too busy. Listen, if you work in the hospital,
you have 45 patients and 45 patients make a date with you. So
you make a -- in the same time and same place and you go with
45 guys. Over here, women have one, two boyfriends and that's
it. You work and you have to please everybody some. Then
after I explained to them, I says, "If I go with you, he's
going to be mad. If I go over to him, you going to be mad,"
so I says, "I go with all of you." I buy my own tickets to
the movie and hello everybody and that's it.
KEMMLER: Yeah. So a lot of the soldiers recovered. You know,
they were in the hospital but they were recovering?
FARLEY: They recovering and some of them are just pretending that
they're sick, you know.
KEMMLER: Yeah.
FARLEY: Some of them are pretending, but I tell you something, we
have all different sections. Our section was operating
section, but you -- like you says, "What kind of soldier was
it?" There was a young officer. I don't know why he was
officer in the first place.
And we keep the one lady -- officer lady keep one elderly
woman, she didn't have no family, nobody. She shouldn't be
even in the military. She probably was my age now. But we
keep her there. And she's going and that officer says to her,
he turn her back to salute to him. Why didn't she salute to
him, you know. And I was so damn mad. I come in. I said,
"You should be ashamed of yourself. She could be your
grandmother." I says, "You want her to salute?" I says, "You
should salute her." You know, I told her I thought he was
going arrest me, but he didn't say anything. I just salute
and I left him.
But one time, I was turned back in Bari, in Italy. There
was a three-stories building and he was coming, that officer
was coming and I put the hand up and cleaned my nose. The
captain upstairs see that. He call me. I come in. I salute.
He says, "How do we salute in the military service?" And I
show him. He says, "That's not the way you salute."
I says, "There must be a fly on my nose or something."
He says, second time, he says, "You salute good."
"Yes, sir." That's it.
KEMMLER: I'm sure you had long days in the hospital.
FARLEY: You know what? I tell you something. There was funny
working over there because all the people was different. All
the people were like you, you know. One of them says to me,
you know, he had the wound someplace over here, so if you
changing, he have to be undressed completely. He never wants
the man to change it. He always wants me to do it. So one
time I was so damn mad, I says, "You should be ashamed of
yourself." I says, "You don't need that changed," I says.
He says, "I'm officer."
I says, "You are not. You are patient like everybody
else." I says, "You stars are left in admitting office." You
know what, like all the patients that was over there -- there
was like 30 of them, they was clapping to me because I tell
him he's not officer here. Because most of the gals was going
after officers, you know. They have so they have boyfriend
officers or talk to officer. To me, all of them are the same.
One time -- this I have to tell you. In Italy, we were in
army huts, and to the office where the nurses are, there was a
key. Was closed. But there was halfway like that and you can
see what is behind it. And a lady officer have ***. She
have cognacs and everything, because they give it to the
patients, you know, sick patients. But she was giving that to
her husband. I says to myself -- one time she had the day
off. I says to one of the guys, I says, "Help me to go over
there. Give me --" I step on the chair and I climb on the
other side, pick up the bottle, climb it over. We had those
eggs cup to serve the eggs, those little shots things. I have
all of them for thirty. I fill it up with the cognac. I come
into the tent and I says, "Which one of you are very brave to
get a drink the castor oil for me?"
And there was a young guy, cute little thing. He says,
"Nurse, from you I can drink poison."
I says, "Good. Here." He shot that thing and his eyes
pop up, you know. After the guy says, everybody drink. I
says, "Now you didn't see nothing. You didn't have nothing."
And that's it.
She come next day. "Who was over here?"
"Over where," I says.
"In my office."
I says, "Who have a key?"
"I have a key."
I says, "So what are you ask the question for? Is
something missing? Something missing? I wonder what." She
didn't say nothing. And she never find out because, listen --
But the guys -- the guys says, if I come in, "How come you not
talking to us?"
I said, "The beds are not made. Nothing is done." I
says, "You want me to talk to you?" In a couple seconds, I
had a beautiful place. They did everything. And you know
what, in that place, three girls was working, and in another
place, six girls working and the job was never done because
they didn't know how to treat those patients.
KEMMLER: Uh-huh. So you had all different nationalities of
soldier in the hospital?
FARLEY: Yes. Yes.
KEMMLER: So wherever the battles were, that's where they sent
you --
FARLEY: Yes.
KEMMLER: -- to work in the hospital?
FARLEY: No. I was working at -- there was a hospital in every --
where the big divisions are. There was three hospitals: One,
two, and three. I was in one. I remember I was passing by
and a gentleman from another settlement. I was going to
school with his daughter. I says, "Good morning,
Mr. Tomashevitch(ph)."
He stood there. He looks at me. He says, "How do you
know I'm Mr. Tomashevitch(ph)?"
I says, "Look in my face and think good," I says. He
didn't recognize me because here's the young children they
grow up, you know, and anything. So I tell him who I am. Oh,
he was so happy and his daughter in is Norwalk. We see each
other. Yes.
KEMMLER: Interesting. So he's -- he's gone now. But his
daughter in is Connecticut?
FARLEY: Yes.
KEMMLER: Oh, that's interesting. Okay. Do you have any other --
before I -- I'm just going to go to after your service ended,
but do you have any more stories that occur to you right now
about being in the service? Any more things that happened?
FARLEY: You know, I was like we were in Iraq, was a paradise for
things, you know. There was a couple of things in there. I
tell you what, it's a beautiful things to see like Bethlehem
where supposedly Jesus was born, that grotto, you know, and
things like that. You see those things and it gives you the
feeling that you really in church. And only because I was in
the military service I can see that because I wouldn't be able
to afford to go anyplace. You know, right now, one of my
daughter is a stewardess. I can fly, but I'm 84 years old and
where you going to go. I had a pacemaker. I had a couple of
heart attacks. And what do you do? You stay home. But
before you want to fly, everything was very expensive.
KEMMLER: Yes.
FARLEY: I tell you something what I remember. I was going from
here to England -- no, to Poland. I was dressed up in a
pleated white skirt, a navy blue jacket, and my hair was
pinned over here, and I have a white and navy blue kerchief.
I'm sitting in London and the lady come to me and says, "Do
you speak English?"
I says, "Little bit. Why?"
She says, "I'm going to Warsaw and I don't know which
plane is going because I don't speak English."
I says, "I'm going there so," I says, "you can go with
me."
She says to me, "Where you coming from?"
I says, "From United States."
She says, "I don't believe you."
I says, "Why?"
She says, "You too dressed up to be from United States."
I says to myself, "How do you do?" That's what she says
to me. Because our people are really don't dressing up. And
this is not the joke. This is the truth, you know.
I take the dance group to Polish -- international festival
in Poland in 1980. And you know what, we're looking like
gypsies compared to those people, and they don't have nothing.
Those directors and everything, they were dressed up all the
time and everything. And you look at it and you says to
yourself what happened to us?
KEMMLER: Yeah. So when your service ended, you were in England?
FARLEY: Yes.
KEMMLER: And what happened after that? Did you decide -- where
did you go after that?
FARLEY: I was in England for a while and my first husband die and
I was left with four kids. And I says to myself -- my brother
went to America. I says to myself, "I am going to go and see
how is it." Everybody says America, America. There was a big
surprise if I come over here because, first of all, I come by
the plane to New York. And I was waiting for my brother to
come to pick me up. But you see I speak five languages. And
there was a Russian woman that lost her luggage and there's
nobody there to help her, so I come in and I helped the woman.
Then was an Italian fellow. There was something wrong with
him, so I come to help him.
Finally they come to me and they says, "Who are you?"
I says, "Why?"
"You speak so many languages."
I says, "This is necessity. I have to do it." I says, "I
was in those countries and I have to speak the language."
They was watching me like anything. They was checking my
luggage and everything. Yeah, because they think I was a spy
because I speak some languages.
KEMMLER: And including English, obviously, because --
FARLEY: I tell you something. This English never going to be the
right for me because I tell you something, my husband is
American, but I belong to the Polish clubs, you know, and once
in a while we have to use that language. And I write poetry
and for me it's much easier to write in Polish, then I have to
one lady that belongs to the same club and she translate for
me in English. But the translation is beautiful because it's
a rhyming and everything. I don't like to just translate from
one word to another and that's it. It has to be rhyming. To
me, Poland have to have a rhyme.
KEMMLER: Right. Right. So you came to the United States. Did
you -- did the -- did your service -- after your service, did
they support your education? You know, the GI Bill?
FARLEY: Nothing. Nothing. Nothing like that.
KEMMLER: You're on our own?
FARLEY: You're on your own.
KEMMLER: Did you make some good friends while were you in the
service?
FARLEY: I tell you something. The friends, I always have people
because I'm a peoples person. I can't sit alone. I always
have in the clubs and every place. Like you have the things
they pick me up as a queen, and two thirds of them are black.
You see, if they will be white one, then that's a different
story. But to me a person is the person, doesn't matter what
creed, religion or color, or whatever it is. As long as -- I
have groups. For example, we play cards.
KEMMLER: Uh-huh.
FARLEY: I have the one group in Hartford. I had one group in
Middletown.
KEMMLER: Uh-huh.
FARLEY: We play cards. And it's ten people. Ladies against
gentlemen. We play Setback. Now I'm going to North Hampton
to play Setback in the 17th. They invite me over there. I
was a model for a woman that owned the boutique store.
KEMMLER: Ah.
FARLEY: And she belongs to our club and she knows me and she
loves me to come and we go over there and play cards.
KEMMLER: Yeah. Well after the war, what did you do as a career
or for work?
FARLEY: Little bit of everything. I do what I need to support
the children. I didn't believe that you just give it to me
because I had the kids. In England, I don't have to work
because I have the pension after my first husband die, you
know, so I don't have to do that. They still was sending me
the pension over here till I started working. But I was
working on a machine. I remember I come to Emheart(ph). I
never see the machine in my life. And we come in, but my
sister-in-law with the little carriages because we had the
babies and stuff like that. So there was a full room of
people. One o'clock, this guy says to me -- no. We come in,
open the door and he says, "No more jobs. Everybody can go
home." So everybody left, and I didn't. He come in and he
says, "Didn't I tell you there's no job?"
I says, "No job? No shift? No nothing?" I says, "Are
you sure you don't have nothing?"
He looks at me. He says, "You must be desperate?"
I says, "You better believe I'm desperate."
He says, "Come in afternoon." So I come in afternoon. He
bring me to the shop machine. The monsters over there. "Did
you ever work on machine?"
"Yes." He hire me. I have a dollar for start. But one
thing I was worried about it was how to start it and have to
finish and the rest of your brain teach you how to put the
pieces in. There's nothing to it. So I was working there.
I remember I come in first day and one of the men says to
me, "Am I not good enough for to you say good morning to me?"
I says, "Excuse me, sir, but why I'm come from the woman
never say good morning to the guy. Guy say good morning to
the woman," I says, and that's my thing. Next day I come in,
everybody say good morning to me. I says that's it. Why
should I say good morning to you? I don't say good morning.
I only say good morning to a man that I know and he's much
older than me, then I say good morning to him. This is
respect. But I don't going to say good morning to anybody
because he just want me to say good morning.
KEMMLER: Right.
FARLEY: And you know what? I was working there. All kinds of
machines. I was working on the piecework and everything till
I get hurt, because you have to pick it up the boxes and the
truck men was always drunk and he was sleeping someplace, that
guy. So I lift up the box. I had the operation and --
KEMMLER: Yeah.
FARLEY: -- after operation, I go again to work. But after I get
hurt the third time in the job, I went to dental academy. The
lawyer went with me, and dental academy was in Norwalk. There
was Jewish people that owned this, Mr. and Mrs. Shohn(ph).
And you have to pass the exams. I tell them, I says, "I don't
write English and I don't want to go to school." Because you
have the whole bunch of kids and what you going to do in
school, you know. So, anyway, I went over there and he throw
some kind of squares, plastic things. He says pick up the
colors by the colors, which one is first. So I --
(demonstrating). He looks at me. I says, "What are you
looking at?"
He says, "You did it right."
I says, "What you talking about?"
He says, "Three-quarters of the guys, they colorblind."
And there was a lot of guys.
You know, I was in that dental academy for two years. My
son says to me, "Ma, I give you three weeks and you going to
quit because that's drive to Norwalk." At 63 miles one way.
My diploma is on the wall. I graduated and I graduated B
plus.
And those people, Jewish, they always invite me to the
house and I was -- they were in my house, you know. I just
lost a lady. She just died of ovarian cancer. But he comes
to the school and he says, "We usually --" The owner of the
school, he says, "We usually don't associate with the
students, but Krystyna was over our house because Krystyna is
different," he says.
I says, "Mr. Shohn(ph), you shouldn't say that in school
because those people going to hate me." He says, "I don't
care." The first denture I did there was Indian doctor from
India. He was learning like I am because over here, you know.
And I did the first set-ups. And he says, "Krystyna, can I
take this?" I says, "Why?" He says, "I going to show the
doctors what the students can do." I says, "Good, here is the
thing." So.
KEMMLER: Okay.
FARLEY: Then I married a -- I was working on inspection. I was
working at making gauges. The gauges making, only one in 47
can do because there's a very close tolerance, but I learned
it. I learned it because I need it. See, if you had four
kids and you don't have no income, you have to do anything.
So I remember the gentleman call me -- I was on inspection and
he called me and says, "Krystyna, I am so busy. I need to
work. Can you help me?"
I says, "How much you paying?" That time I make two
dollars fifty cents.
He says, "I give you six dollars."
I says, "You give me six dollars, I'm coming." So I come
to part-time and I met Mr. Farley. I need the escort to
?bush? You know, because the Polish group was coming from
Mashovra(ph) from Poland and need to be able to deliver the
flowers. To be able to go there, I need the escort, so I
asked Mr. Farley to be my escort. And he's my escort till
now. He's modelling for me and everything else and he's
helping. I have a heart attack and I was in the hospital and
I need to do the fashion show in Holyoke and he put all the
clothes in it and everything. And I asked the doctor, I said,
"Dr. Sand, can I go home today?" He says, "Why?" I says, "My
husband have 20 women and I would like to know what he's doing
with them."
He says, "20 women?"
I says, "20 women." And I explained to him what I needed
so he let me go. I just put the gown on, put my hair back,
introduced somebody else and we did the fashion show.
KEMMLER: Did your -- did your military experience influence how
you think about war?
FARLEY: Yes. The first of all, to me, the three-quarters of
people that they dying over there, they dying useless because
this war is not necessary. First of all, we shouldn't be
there. Like my grandson, going the fourth time. Young guy
like that for what?
KEMMLER: So because you've seen war you know what it's like?
FARLEY: I know what is it. I tell you something, you see like
Monte Cassino was won by the Polish soldier and over here on
the television, the American won the war. The cemeteries of
Polish people over there and plenty of them. You know. I
know American helps. I don't say they don't. They help, but
the Polish people put the flags on Monte Cassino. I have the
books and I was there anyway, so.
KEMMLER: Okay. So that makes a difference if you've been there
and you've seen it?
FARLEY: You know, I tell you something. Sometimes I don't talk
to the people because they think you're telling them the
story. This is not the story. This is the truth. You know,
because to make a story, you see I make the poems. Of course,
I write the poems. To me, writing the poems like drinking a
glass of water or something.
You sure you don't want anything?
KEMMLER: I'm fine, thanks. Yeah.
FARLEY: But anyway, this is the truth. Like my children says,
"Oh, Ma, pork chops again?" "Chicken again?" I says, "Don't
eat. You don't like it, don't eat." I says, "Some people
will kiss you for that." I says, "You know how many hungry
people?"
Listen, the first Christmas in Russia, you know what I
had? I steal some peels from potatoes from a Russian women
and my mother make some little soup for us for that, and that
was Christmas and we were happy to have that. And you see
now, chicken again? Pork chops again? Don't eat. Don't eat,
don't ask. That's it.
KEMMLER: Yeah. Is there anything you'd like to add that we
haven't covered yet in this interview? Or we can -- I can
turn off the camera and we can think it over.
FARLEY: Why don't you turn off the camera and we can think about
it.
(Recess taken.)
KEMMLER: We're going to record some of Mrs. Farley's life that
has to do with her life before the war when she was a prisoner
in Russia.
FARLEY: There was a ?June? in the war anyway. Because in 1940 --
the war started in the 1939.
KEMMLER: Right.
FARLEY: We was taken to Russia in 1940. The 10th of February.
KEMMLER: Right.
FARLEY: There was travel to Russia. Anyway, we were three
families in this place with so many children because there was
a four besides us five children and three grown-ups, so we
have to have food somehow. I remember one time I says to my
brother, "We have to go and steal something." And my mother
was against stealing, but we conversed together without
anythings. So we have a knife made out of the piece of a
metal. It was a knife. And you know what we did? We killed
a sheep. We steal the sheep and we killed him. Outside
nobody knows about it. We did it. We have to feed the
people, you know, and the next day the lady come for me to
tell the fortune. I make myself --
KEMMLER: Hold on a second.
(Telephone rings.)
FARLEY: Anyway, we sold the things. Lady comes for a fortune
teller. I tell her this is it, Jewish fellows or something
that there was single over there probably they tell her
things. But what I had the food from, I tell her fortune and
I didn't know what I was talking about because I don't know
how to tell the fortune. I tell her that she have somebody
outside the head place that she's going to see him soon, that
he didn't see him for a long time but she going to see him
soon. She says to me, "If that is true, I going to keep
giving you food." And you know what, in a couple of days, we
see the gentleman coming with the horse. We ask him who he
is. He says he's the son of this lady and he was in a prison
for ten years. And you know what, they instead to greeting
him, they grabbed me and they put me on the quilts, you know,
and they bring the food to me. So then we have a little food
to eat because they allowed to have meat and everything else.
We didn't. So we were stealing. We were eating the turtles,
the land turtles. They are edible and they are very good.
KEMMLER: Ah.
FARLEY: So we eat the turtles, but we have to do that in secret
because if they find out you eating a turtle, that's against
their religion, so they can kill you, you know, so we was
doing all kinds of different things.
KEMMLER: So there was another family they were prisoners too?
FARLEY: Yes.
KEMMLER: They got more food than you did?
FARLEY: No. Those people that were there, they were Kazakhstans.
Their nationality. They were completely different race. You
see, they speak very little Russian, you know, and they was we
living in their places. That's what it is. They take us over
there so we can help them do the jobs and stuff like that.
Because you see over there, that's a completely different
life. We don't realize that the people doesn't sleep on a
beds, that they -- that they, for example, the women doesn't
go with the mens together so everybody can see them. It's a
completely different religion and everything. And they look
like Chinese because they have eyes that they are slant and
the language is completely different.
KEMMLER: So --
FARLEY: What I have if I have to telling the fortune, I have a
lady doctor that she speaks Russian, so I call her as a
translator. One time I arrived to her and she's lying on the
floor and somebody's walking over her. She's lying flat on
her belly. And I says to the doctor, "What are you doing?"
She says, "Listen, I'm a doctor and I have a lot of practice
and read a lot of books but," she says, "for back trouble, if
you don't have no operation, it's very good if somebody walk
over you, close to your weight. The person can't be heavier
than you. They have to be close to you and you walk like this
with your feet from the neck bone to tailbone."
KEMMLER: Yeah.
FARLEY: You have to be close. And you know what, I tried that on
my own back because I had the back problem and that helps
beautifully.
KEMMLER: So sometimes you didn't wear shoes? You wore cloths on
your feet?
FARLEY: Yes. There was no shoes.
KEMMLER: No shoes.
FARLEY: There was no shoes. Only they were made out of like a
felt. They were given to the people that they were working.
If you don't work, you don't have nothing. But if you're
young, you're a kid, you don't have nothing.
KEMMLER: Right. And you had almost no food and the rats ate the
FARLEY: Absolutely. You know, you had a little bit and I'm just
wondering how our parents survived because our parents most of
the time go hungry to bed to feed the children. You know, if
you have five kids, you have to feed them.
KEMMLER: Right.
FARLEY: I know that. I have them. I have those kids. And after
they grow up over here, they're going to tell you, "Ma,
whatever you did for
us?
You never did anything for
us." Of
course not.
KEMMLER: These are fascinating stories. I'm going to turn this
off right now.