Vol. 2-Interview-Kascak

8/23/72 Tape 12-2 --1-- 369 M/M George Petrushka interviewed by Denis Mercier

DM: I know that you had a very bad experience in the mines, and I know that we have a lot of other tales on tape and in notebooks about unfortunate experiences in the mines. I know you were caught in a, what was it, a "black damp" or a "white damp" explosion? GP: Yes. It was gas. DM: A gas explosion. GP: Gas explosion. DM: And you were in the chamber? GP: Yes, I was in the chamber at the time it went off. After finishing, you know, drillin' the holes. I was up there wiring the gosh darn holes up, because I had them already tamped? to a dynamite. And I thought the dynamite went off when I heard the blast. It was my buddy went and he took the tools down into a safety hole, and he threw the drills down in there, and he said probably a spark off of that must have ignited the gas. Because it knocked him dang [space] down, it knocked me down--my belt, my hat, my lights went th' heck out--so then, the only thing I looked, when I was layin' down on my back, with the big flame up above me, and I looked, sorta looked toward him where he was--he was about, I'd say about thirty feet below where I was--but his shirt was on fire, his hair was on fire, and I thought Well, I'd better go down and get him. And I could have went through a safety hole... DM: I was gonna say, you were right near an exit... GP: A narrow one, you know, air hole. I could have went down in that way. And I wouldn'ta even got burnt. But then, as I was crawling towards him, every time I'd make a move, the, the wind would bring this flame down on top of me, you know? You'd have to lay quiet, and then it would go up into the ceiling again. DM: But every time you moved, what did that, just jarring the air? J : Jarring the air, causing the flame to come down. GP: Singe you. DM: It would burn you all again. GP: Finally I rolled, kept rollin', over the coal till I come to him. But probably he was unconscious, because he didn't say, aye, no, or nothin'. I just took him. Sort of when I picked him up, the flames come down underneath us, you know, burnt my hands, my face--I dropped him, you know, and I had to lay there quiet till the flames went up. And they went up very easy, nice and slow. They didn't go up too fast. So I stood there for about, oh I'd say about two seconds thinkin' over what should I do. So I quick turned around I took my feet, my boots. I pushed him out. As I was pushin' him out with my boots, all the flames was around my boots, you know? MP: Hon? Tell him what you thought about at that time. GP: Oh, before I started the... MP: When you were in that flame. GP: I remembered my mother tellin' me, if I was ever in trouble, to ask... MP: the Blessed mother... GP: the Blessed Mother for help. And just at that moment I did, you know, and that's how quick I turned around and started kickin' him out. You know, the idea come to me. And I had to roll him maybe twenty feet before we come to the edge of the chute, and I throwed him down that chute. So finally, the boss was down there, and they picked him and they dipped him in a ditch, you know, right in the water. So I got to the chute, and I rolled in there, and as we were goin' around the curve, I grabbed a hold of a prop, and I hung onto it, you know, and I happened to look up, and the

8/23/72 Tape 12-2 --2-- 409 M/M George Petrushka interviewed by Denis Mercier

old flame was still burnin'--because we had no lights--you had all the light you want from the flames! MP: Yeh, well, that was methane gas, that's why that was burnin' like that. GP: So, I think it was Chermbury (?), and the state inspectors, when they come in the hospital, they asked me four or five different times, did I really get out of there before the flames went out? I said, I did. Then later on I asked the doctor what was the reason of askin' these questions. And they said, If you were in there when the flames went out, he said one or two good breaths and you were finished. It would have killed you. J : But while it was burning, it rises all the time. GP: It's lighter than air, I guess, or whatever it is. DM: That's an incredible story. Didn't you say that, even before you got out you were pulling your skin off your arms because it was... GP: Oh, yeh, because it was hangin' down, all the skin, it was hangin' on the edge here. So I took it, and I just pulled it off and threw it in the ditch. MP: See, you can take notice--Daddy, put your hand like that--you can take notice how far that it... DM: When I first met him, I noticed that his neck had been burned, but I didn't notice anything else. I could hardly tell a thing. GP: Oh, my neck, my ears, that's all new skin. You see, I have to watch, that's just ?rough from a canvas cloth. If I would, my fingers sweat, like in the summer time, and that little rubbed irritation, you know, cut it right away. DM: Your skin is still tender on your hands, I imagine. This happened when? Fifteen years ago? GP: Oh, no, that's only nine years ago. That happened in sixty-three. And I was home for one year, just that I got compensation. MP: Do you see, take notice to his eyes, when he has glasses, now he reads for a little while... GP: My whole face was burned up. MP: ...and when he takes them glasses off, you just think that something just pushed this skin right in for him, and it's so red for the longest time. DM: I always thought that he looked younger than he was... GP: Well, that's because I was burnt. DM: Because your skin is new, huh? MP: That's right, that's right! GP: Even the doctor said, You are gonna have baby skin now. DM: Well, I think it didn't hurt him at all, as far as your looks go. GP: Yeh, but you suffer. DM: Oh, yeh, I can imagine your skin is still very sensitive. GP: You get it in the wintertime. J : Here's one. Forty-one years ago. DM: Oh, my gosh, look at that. J : And that's the skin that you get. Forty years ago. And a big son of a bitch come down and caught me, and it just took all the beef right off of the leg. Took it right off. DM: That's not a burn, that's just a big gouge right out of your leg. J : That's right. Took a gouge right out. And I never went to a hospital. Old Doctor Farrell says to me... M : Joe. Listen. J : Joe, he says, now look... M : Joe! Don't swear! J : Ha! And Doctor Farrell says to me, Joe, as far as I can see, he says,

8/23/72 Tape 12-2 --3-- 444 M/M George Petrushka interviewed by Denis Mercier (also M/M Joe [blank])

your leg ain't broke, no broken bones, and he went over it for about three hours. He sat right there with me, and he filled his pipe up--he used to smoke a pipe. At home, he used to come over every day. And you know what it looked like? It looked like pus all around. You know what he said to me? That's not pus, Joe. He says, that's the old for the new skin. I don't know how much you're gonna get, he says, but that there is all gonna burst, and it's gonna spread, he says, and that's the skin you are gonna get. And that's forty-one years ago. GP: They took skin off of my legs, you know, from my thighs. Because I lay in the hospital for about a week. And the doctor took the bandages off. Well, my hand was nothin' but--did you ever see green mold on bread? And I was tryin' to scrape that green mold off before the doctor come in, you know, so I wouldn't have to go for an operation. But he said, George, you gotta go. I said What are you gonna do? He said I'll take the skin off of your legs, he said, and I'm gonna put them on both hands. I said, all right, if that's the case, you gotta do it, you gotta do it. And that' what they had done. Before they did it, the doctor come in in the night. Now see, this was just like, like hamburg. [sic] DM: I can imagine. J : Before it was all set, when they were graftin'. GP: And he took a dish towel, and he'd take one finger at a time, you know, with a napkin or something, and he'd just take and squeeze and lift all that old skin out, you know? So, when I looked at my hand, I seen my bones, my fingers! Ha! Ha! I think, I'm scarin' myself. MP: You know that he laid in ice, like a pack, it was just like a pillow case, you know. All you could see was this here out, but then you couldn't even see that because this was all bandaged. DM: Did that kill the pain, or was that, did they give you some drugs to kill the pain? GP: Oh, they were givin' us needles, I guess. If you only knew how many needles they broke off in my... DM: Rear end! J : That's right! You get 'em so much in the arm, then you can't use either arm, so then they go back there, and they start punchin' em in. GP: I remember one of the nurses sayin' well, she said, I heard that the miners were tough as mules, and I believe it now! And how many she broke in there! Then they come with a pair of tweezers and pull them out! DM: Mrs. Petrushka, could you just tell very briefly about when you went up to the hospital to give George some food... GP: The nurses would feed me, and then she would come up. MP: Well, the nurses asked me if I would come up, you know, if I would feed him, because they were so busy at the time in that ward, you know. And I said, well sure. So then, well he'd say, I'm gettin' tired of this food, and I'm gettin' tired of that. You know, the hospital food. Well, then I'd make things at home that I knew he liked. And the first day I brought it up for him, and I fed him. This poor other man that George saved was laying on the bed in the same room, because they were in the isolation ward, you know. So, he was layin' on the bed next to George, you know? And he's lookin' over, and he's lookin' over, and I'm feedin' him, you now, because he couldn't pick nothin', because everything was bandaged, he couldn't pick nothing up. So, well, I mean every day, twice a day, I was goin'. So the next day I went up, I thought, oh, how can I just take somethin' for him and not for that poor guy, you know? Yet, his wife was sittin' at the end of the bed, lookin' at me feedin'

8/23/72 Tape 12-2 --4-- 491 M/M George Petrushka interviewed by Denis Mercier (also M/M Joe [space])

George and never thinkin', Well, she should bring something for her husband, you know? So then, the next day when I came up, I had two bowls of whatever it was, and you know, two packages. So I start feeding George, and I said to her, I brought something up for your husband, would you like to feed him? Oh, she said, after a while. Well, I got done feedin' George, she still wasn't givin' it to him, you know? And I said to her--what is her name--I forgot already what her name was-- GP: Was it Estella or something like that. I don't know. MP: --and I said Wouldn't you like to give your husband that before it gets cold? And she said, Oh, after while. So, you know, I couldn't stand there because I felt that man is just as hungry as George was, so I opened the packages and went over by the bed and started feedin' him. And she sat there, mind you, never sayin', Well, it's my husband, I should feed him, you know? Yet I felt funny, thinkin' well, why should I go and feed another man, yet I thought, if I was a nurse I would do it, so why shouldn't I do it now? And he enjoyed that so much. He said, thank you so much, that is so good, it's so delicious, he said, oh, that's so good. But, after that, every time I went, there was always two packages I was takin'. Even if she wasn't there, I'd feed George and then I'd feed him. And, you know, then, after the thing was over, she says to George, she says, You know what? She says, you were a damn fool, she says, for goin' in and savin' my man. And he says, Why? He said, If I had to do it all over again, I would still do the same thing, he said, because, he said, I could never live with my conscience, to know that I left a man there to burn to death. He said, I got burnt, and he said, I suffered, but at least I know I saved your husband. Yeah, but, she said, I would have got eighteen thousand. Because, see, she would have got... GP: She wasn't thinkin' of her husband. DM: I think it was eighteen hundred, wasn't it? You don't mean eighteen thousand. MP: No, eighteen...wasn't it, Daddy? GP: I think it was around eighteen thousand. DM: Oh, I thought it was eighteen hundred, you said before. MP: No, it was eighteen thousand, because, see, that would have been a payment like, because... DM: A death payment on his insurance? MP: Yeah, that's right. GP: And yet the doctor said, when we were in the hospital, they only give us, what was it, four hours, or three hours, to live. See, they got all the families together. I thought it was something funny, because they had me out in the hall, you know, and--George, do you smoke? No, I said. Well, he said, here, have a cigarette. Well, I said, I don't smoke cigarettes, I said. I said, If it was a pipe, maybe I'd smoke the damn thing. So then, later on she told me, she said, You know what the doctor said, that they gave you only two hours to live, or something, ain't it? MP: Yeah. That's all the doctor gave them, was two hours. He said, If they pull through them two hours, he said, they'll be all right. GP: I said, no wonder they were offerin' me everything! It seemed kind of funny! MP: But, oh, they really had wonderful doctors workin' on them. I mean, them doctors really worked. GP: Well, one of the supervisors come to me about three days after. He said, George, I want you to tell me the truth, he said, Do you pray? I said, every morning, every night. He said, I believe it. You must be a God's

8/23/72 Tape 12-2 --5-- 532 M/M George Petrushka interviewed by Denis Mercier (also M/M Joe [blank]) Children! MP: Well, you know, he was still in bandages, and he says to me, You know what, I have to tell you something. And you know, he was pretty sick. And I said, What? I said, you tell me anything you want to tell me. I said, maybe you'll feel better. You know, I says, tell me the whole thing, because I felt, if something should happen to him, at least I'll know how the accident happened, what happened, you know. And he says to me, well, you know what, he said, when that flame was burnin' so hard, he said, I felt my hair burnin', he says, you know, on top. I was layin' down, and, he said, I was lookin' up, and he said, I felt my hair burnin'. And he said, I thought, Oh dear Mother of God, Help me. And he says, you know, it just seemed that that flame went out. GP: It didn't go out, it went up. MP: Well, er, up or something, you said. GP: It just raised up, up to the ceiling. MP: And I said to him, well, good, I said, you just keep praying to the Blessed Mother and she will help you. I kept tellin' him that, see? GP: As long as you didn't disturb the air... J : Yeah, the air is what would bring it down like a bunch of bees on top of you. MP: And you know, after he told me that, I bet it wasn't five minutes after, he was so sound asleep, that, you know, he didn't even know nothing. He just, like, just went off that you couldn't even talk to him or say nothing to him. GP: I come home from the hospital, and there was an explosion in the junk yard if you remember. Some guys got all burned up. And the nurse called. J : A propane gas tank erupted. GP: So, they wanted me to come to the hospital. I says, okay, I'll come up. So, when I come up, we went up, remember, she said, I want you to go to this man's bed, and tell him how bad you were burned. But they told me, he said that he didn't have no... J : No will. GP: ...no will to live. MP: Daddy, he was burnt in a junk yard. GP: Well, that's what I was just tellin' Joe, it was in a junk yard. When I went over to him, and I was talkin' to him, I said, you don't know me, I said, but I've been somethin' like yourself. I've been all burned up. I showed him my hands and my face, and I said, you have to have the will to live, I said, these nurses and doctors know what they're doin', I said. Just listen to them, I said, they'll pull you through. So, we talked for about half an hour, I think. MP: Oh, he was grateful. He really was. GP: Then I went to the nurses' place there, you know. And then later on, I come up, because I used to go for therapy, you know. I used to go and visit him. And the nurses thought that that was one of the greatest things for him. And the guy is livin' today. Otherwise, they said, he would have died on them. J : He didn't have the will to live. DM: Well, if I saw my hands and my bones and everything like that on my hands, I don't think I'd feel too good either. I suppose I can't tell. GP: I drug many guys like you on my way to Germany in World War Two. If I would have left him, right there he would have died. But as long as I was draggin' him, all you'd hear from him, Well, have I got a chance, have I got a chance? I said, just stop as much of that blood as you can, till