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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