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Waln Brown interviewing Clifford Falatko -6- 8/20/72
Tape 5-1
WB When you were a child can you remember what kind of money he made, how much
per hour he made, what was his job, was he a contract miner, so he made
more than the company miners?
CF Yeh he was contract miner, it all depends on the job he had, sometimes
he had a job where he could get a little money, sometimes he had a job that
he couldn't make money. When he worked down at the mountain he didn't
make good at all. My brother was killed up here, only 22 years old, he had
four kids.
WB What happened to the children and the wife?
CF Well they're all livin', they're all big men.
WB What happened did the company give them money?
CF I don't know, they didn't give no compensation, the give her some for each
child so much, then she used to go washin' and do housework for people,
she kept them goin' she raised them all she lived in ( ) now, that's
Helen Fedorchak's sister, she lived in with Anna Fedorchak.
WB Oh she lived with Anna Fedorsha?
CF She had 3 boys and a girl after he was killed she had, but they're all
married now, they all have nice families; she had it pretty tough.
WB Do you remember when your father worked was that all he did or was there
other things he did to raise a family, just mine or did he pick huckleberries
or anything like that?
CF No our daddy never worked for anybody, now and then he'd go for a quart of
huckleberries just for pasttime he used to go with the old guys, but pick
huckleberries, no, but he used to go and pick a quart or two for pasttime
not only him but there was lots of guys that used to go, no he didn't do
nothin' else only he used to go for coal, carry coal, we'd go home from
work, us boys, not #4 you had a church, there was an old strip there, you'd
go out and make a hole and make a fire and then go with the wheel barrow
and carry coal home, one would carry and the other one would crack.
WB That helped to save money because you didn't have to buy coal.
CF No we never bought coal, we came in this house and we had coal for about
5 years that we picked up there, I never bought coal till we got here, I
got it from the hospital now, with a broken leg, I take 6 qts. cans or sometime
2 6qts. cans and I go down there's lots of coal in the ( ) region here I go
over with my cane, that stick that I have, this one and I get 3 buckets
everyday that we burn in the daytime and put it away, and today I didn't have
to go, yeh I used to go for coal.
WB How about when you were young what were the kind of jobs that you had to
do around the house?
CF Nothin' just go for coal or you had some things around the house like Mom
did, tend to the cows or take the manure out of some things like that,
you didn't have to much around the house there were so many of us that
the ones that worked didn't have much they'd get the girls to do it, the
sisters.
WB Do you remember anything about the boarders, did your family ever have
boarders or did you know anybody that had boarders?
CF No there were very few boarders in this town.
WB If there were boarders, where did they board, were there specific areas
where the boarders, like on the Back Street?
CF Very few around here unless you had some relations that they came from
different towns, different state, if they got a job here or something,
you'd keep them one or so but no strange boarders, no boarders here at all
everybody had big families how in the heck would they keep boarders?
WB That's true with the many kids there wasn't much room.