Vol. 1-Interviews-Ferko

DM Interview Thomas & Mary Ferko Tape #6 8/7/72

DM: You tell me how tight it was with your expenses, your budget MF: When we got married how much were you making TF: About 41 cents an hour, $3.33 a day for 8 hours DM: And how much was for rent, how much rent did you pay, what year was this about TF: 1936, we got married in '38, when I was drivin' mules I got $4.62 DM: And $3.33 is what you started out as a patcher, and then it went up to $4.32 and what was the rent back then MF: Then we were livin' with my mother TF: and then we were payin' $15.00 DM: $15 with your mother TF: No in an apartment in Freeland DM: That was pretty high rent then MF: Three rooms and no bath, the toilet was just partitioned off, then we moved to Buck Mountain and we paid $10 TF: No that was no company house that was a house next to _______ DM: John up here MF: No that was up at #2 Buck Mountain, and we had no light and we had to wash clothes by hand on the washboard and scrub carpet on a bench TF: Down at the end of town and then we moved here DM: Were there pumps where you had to go and rinse your carpet off MF: They didn't have water in the house DM: I'm just making notes on this so I know what I'm talking about when I play the tape back, oh you were down by the _______ and what was the company rent then TF: What did we pay then, something like $8 MF: The water was there DM: And when did they raise it to $11.50 TF: Ever since we lived here, and we lived here 27 Years in October DM: and it's been $11.50 for 27 years now you guys can't talk about the high cost

DM interview Mary & Tom Ferko Tape #6 8/7/72 -2of living TF Well the people up on the Back Street they only paid 5 1/2 dollars DM As long as those houses were up there that's all they were, because they only had one bedroom TF Then those people moved out and others moved in they charged 2 more dollars rent now for instance if I wanted to move out of here into Bruno's house I would have to pay 2 dollars more rent at that time then after we paid $11.50 rent here they uniformed it and everybody had to pay $11.50 and now there are some people in Eckly payin' $15, see they moved in after DM I spend more rent in a month in a little house in New Jersey than you pay for a year, that's the thing that gets me TF And you have to pay for your own water down there too I guess DM No the water's includedut we have to pay the light and gas I had to buy a tank of gas the other day $9 a some cents, we're supposed to pay $12 but there was something wrong with it and he could only get 9 in MF We get a full tank and we pay 12 something DM Just a brand new tank, yes that's what they cost but he only put $9 in, that's still not bad TF That's cheap operation MF A tank lasts me about 4 months DM And now you can get by with how much to heat the house for a winter TF On a average, $120, that's for a year, I guess it went up the last time we bought it was $20.50 I don't know what it is now see they got a rain and I guess it might be up a dollar or two a tob of coal use to last you 3 months in the winter time if it gets cold, I use a ton a month DM Mary when you make the blueberry cakes and stuff do you make them in your gas oven MF Yeh DM Back when you were first married how much did food take out of that, do you remember

DM Interview Mary & Tom Ferko -3- 8/7/72 Tape #6 DM I'll bet you did buy all your food at a market TF Yeh but then there were no markets like there is today we just had individual stores, we didn't have big markets like A & P like they do today, you could buy all your stuff in one place but it was individually owned just small stores MF __________ they used to have the meat and grocery store together TF And they used to come around here with trucks, they came around and everybody bought Joe Gallio would come in here on a pay day, we lived the house below here, he would come to our place about 4 o'clock in the afternoon, 2 trucks now imagine, full of groceries and everything and then he'd go out of here 3 or 4 o'clock the next morning DM Who'd buy food at 3 o'clock in the morning TF Everybody, they'd just wait for them guys DM Like the lady of the house would wait up because the man of the house would be sleeping, you were lucky that you lived down here so you could get them in the afternoon TF That's all the owner did, the one that owned 2 trucks, he take the checks back to the bank and get the cash his daddy was some hid of vice president in the bank and he made sure he got the money see you got paid by check and he couldn't carry that much money around so when he got so many checks off of this truck he's go back to Freeland and cash them checks in for cash so he would have enough for the rest to pay the people DM Boy oh boy things have changed a lot since then TF And then the bus used to come in almost every hour back and forth and it cost a nickel to go to Freeland DM How much would you say you got by with on your food bill, you were making how much a month, $3.33 a day to $4.62 TF That all depended how many days you worked sometimes you didn't work no 2 weeks in them days, pay days you were lucky to get two weeks

DM Interview Mary & Tom Ferko -4- 8/7/72 Tape 6 DM You mean because of dockage TF No, they didn't always have the orders for coal, every town has a breaker, DM You mean you'd walk in and they would say no work today TF No a whistle would blow, at 3:30 a whistle would blow if it blowed one there was work if it blowed 3 there wasn't any work tomorrow, at quittin' time a whistle would blow DM How's come we've been here 2 1/2 months and haven't found that out before, that's incredible MF That's true every day at 3:30 the whistle blew TF That's right if the whistle blew one there was work and if it blew 3 there was no work MF We always listened for that whistle DM If you got 8 days of work out of 10 you were doing well TF Yeh, you didn't get work too steady then DM I thought all they did was stock pile the coal, make you fellows work TF How many breakers here, they had #5 breaker, you know where #5 is and now over the top of the hill ------------ you had another breaker, Sandy Run had their own breaker, Hazlebrook had their own breaker, Eckley had their own breaker, #4 when you go towards Hazleton -------------------There was a breaker there, Harleigh had a breaker, -------------, had their own breaker, everyone had their own breaker DM How did they work it out as to who would work, like would it happen that Harleigh breaker would be down for a week and the rest of you guys would be working or what MF They didn't have strippins like they do now, it was all mined TF But after the coal started stackin up they wasn't getting their coal started to tear down one breaker and then Look now they can't get enough coal for the breakers, her uncle is over at Harleigh and he told me they have 100 gondolas to a shift to operate the breaker now you figure 100 gondolas---------- that's a lot of coal DM I had no idea I really didn't that things were like that TF Where did you for for your information around here did you go to the woman

DM inter Mary & Tom Ferko -3- 8/7/72 Tape 6

DM I haven't talked to as many men as I should have, I like women too much, no that's really something I don't think Angela or Wally have found that out see we never have you down talking business we're always having too much fun, that's neat, but here's something you both can answer, about work clothes as opposed to your every day clothes, did you have to buy your clothes from the company? TF You could buy them anwhere you wanted to buy them, your boots or anything an place you wanted to buy them but you could buy in the company store, they were higher there than other places, that's why some guys that working in the mines would deal in the store and they'd never get a pay, when they got their due bills there was a snake on it and you know what that means. MF There would be no money comin'. TF The store took it all. DM What do you mean a snake on it? TF Like this, there was a thing that showed you how many hours you worked and how much you got an hour and how much you made for the total hours and then there was a small thing like on your check your name and everything was on there, how much money you had comin' well you tore that off and when you went for your pay you handed that thing in and you'd look for your name and then look for your envelope and then they handed you your money. MF And a lot of guys didn't get any because they took everything for the store, food and clothing and everything so they wouldn't get no pay. TF You go up and ask and tell him to tell the truth, he never got none. DM He was alway in the hole to the store. MF Yes because he would always buy everything from the store. DM And that was higher, about how much percentage would you say? TF I wouldn't know percentage buy it was always higher a nickel for so, I very seldom dealt in the store, maybe a loaf of bread or something like that, but I paid cash. I didn't have it taken off my pay.