Vol. 1-Interviews-Ferko

DM inter. Mary & Tom Ferko -21- 8/7/72 Tape 6 TF No the people here mostly lived, some like on the Back Street where they had these small homes but the family got bigger they'd look for bigger homes DM Only if there was an opening would they try to move in because this used to be the high class section too TF Yeh DM All the way up to the office where we work TF All the foremans lived there DM Yes the foremen and the big shots MF Yeh that's what I thought. he had lots of money because he lived down here and I lived on the Back Street but he fooled me DM He fooled you huh, what kind of people lived on the Back Street when you were here people with lower paying jobs MF Oh yeh TF Not exactly lower paying jobs but that's where they live were no homes down her that time, it was hard to get a home DM But can you remember any stories or any experiences where they got a new job and he thought he was God's gift to everything and strutted around town and tried to move into a big house and all that TF No you couldn't do that DM The way the housing situation was TF It was always full MF Even when the people moved out of here we had a hard time gettin' this place DM Yes how do you got hold of another house TF We had to go up to Coxe's office in Hazleton the big shots were Coxe's up there MF And you had to have somebody to talk for you TF If you didn't have nobody to talk for you you could go up there early in the week MF And you wouldn't get it, maybe one of their friends, many people that we want to

Inter Mary & Tom Ferko -22- 8/7/72 Tape 6 see to get this place when we heard they were moving out TF It was just like everything else and then I finally told them either I get your house or I'll move to Freeland and the hell with your goddam house and I was workin' and came after me and he said come on we have to go up to Hazleton and sign up for the house I said either I get it or I don't get it I'm tired of that kind of stuff I told him right off DM Did you have to meet any requirements or just TF No we just moved in but what the hell it cost to take care of the home they fixed this window and the roof was leakin' and I got all new windows in my house here DM I was going to say you got beautiful windows MF Right before they quit they gave us all new windows TF And my cement porch they were always puttin' boards on and the boards would rotten and I said give me about 5 bags of cement and I'll put on my own porch in and I put my own porch in and I'm done with it don't have to worry about the boards all the time they'd give you the stuff but you had to help yourself but the biggest part of the people didn't want to help MF We painted almost every summer, you had to take care of them DM I figured that TF But you look across to these homes here they never touch them DM Look one of the worse houses in town we live in I want you to know that, our house you can pull nails out of the side of the house, I'm serious I don't think Emory ever touched the place TF He didn't

DM Inter Mary & Tom Ferko -23- 8/7/72 Tape 6 M a lot of cold air comin' in M with those windows you can shut them and the air still blows thru they have little pieces of nails keeping the windows in and all TF Yeh but this is not in tight that holds the window in tight DM But that's a beautiful job I noticed your windows look like you put them in TF Same as Bruno he paints them everyyear, he takes them out every spring and scrubs them with a brush MF No just scrubs them to get that coal dirt off and all TF And then the next year he'll paint them you don't paint then every year now I didn't paint mine this year I painted them last year DM They look like they've been painted TF No not this year but next year if they look bad I'll paint them DM Do you use a guide to keep the paint off the window pane TF No just a hand brush MF And then if he gets paint on I just, I take a razor blade if he gets it on the window TF Not even a trickle in there DM No I see, solid as a rock MF I wish I had nerves like that DM I would like to be like him, not worry, but I do TF You're not supposed to let it get the best of you, you just shake your head and think of something else DM Yes Piker but you have a woman to worry for you my woman won't do my worrying for me she makes me MF He leaves everything up to me he won't pay the bills or nuthin' DM Where she getting what TF What she gainin' by worryin', nuthin' MF Just a couple headaches and a couple grey hairs

DM inter. Mary & Tom Ferko -24- 8/7/72 Tape 6 TF Well that's your problem not mine I ain't tellin' you to worry you ain't got nuthin' to worry about, but if you wnat to just keep it up DM Well I'm always worryng about whether my boss is going to like what I did if I get in some sort of a jam, if I goof something up, what'll happen TF Well when I worked I didn't worry about my boss or no one else I did my work and if he didn't like it he could tell me about it then when he told me about it then I told him what I thought that's the way we got along if he could get someone else to do better, more power to you and in the end he'd come around and say he's sorry, I did a good job DM Then there wasn't any of this o.k. you're the boss you know everything there was more independence TF Oh there was some jobs where he would take over he would try to act like a big guy the guy didn't know nuthin' in other words I know we had he didn't know the first thing about mining he didn't know how to drill a hole then he'd try and tell you how DM Like the Army the guys out of West Point coming in and telling all the people that was in for years how to do it TF Tryin' to tell me how to mine and I told him right off I told him to mind your own business MF That's Thomas DM When you were down in the mines did you ever do anything, I know you're a joker practical joker, did you ever have any jokes and tricks down in the mines TF Oh yeh we use to nail a guys can to the and he'd go to go home and grab the can and the handle would come off and the guys that worked up in the timber yard my uncle worked up in the yard and send the timber down to the mines well see they had these flat trucks with the holes on each side they use to drive these pegs to hold the timber and they would take the pegs off this side and that side and the timber would fall off any side you wanted it to

inter. Mary & Tom Ferko -25- 8/7/72 DM fall on well when you put this peg in they would drive a spike in at the bottom of the peg and when they got them up to the timber yard they's pull and pull and then they'd have to chop it off they couldn't get it out it was in the bottom underneath MF They had the timber year right up where the school was TF Right behing the school, all the timber use to come in these big flat cars by rail DM How did they get it up there MF The railroad track went all the way up there it used to go all the way down to #10 and then they had a bridge too down there TF Yes but that was for small cars, but this was a big railroad car the use to come up with a big engine use to go up behind your place up to the timber yard MF Yeh, they had a small truck and the big tracks were right above it TF They use to come in to the breaker the gondolas DM But it was an extension of the same track TF Yeh the same thing DM What was the idea of having the timber yard way up there if the colliery was up here, that was in the center of all the operations TF That was more in the center, #10 and #2 and #1 over here and would go around and go to #6 over here MF There was a railroad track that went around TF All way around into Drifton DM A big circle of railroad track and that was right in the middle of the circle TF Yeh and of the colliery even down at Buck Mountain they use to take the timber from here DM Yeh we have pictures of the timber yard, timber stack or whatever they call it, you know you are taling about Polanders versus the Irish and the Welsh and everything did they do anything different when they mined was there any different mining