Vol. 2-Interview-Kascak

8/23/72 Tape 12-2 --11-- 788 M/M George Petrushka interviewed by Denis Mercier (also M/M Joe [blank])

you know? There I seen him, King, under the big lump. So I hollered over at the lump, I called up, and I said, Hey, here he is. Soon as I said Here he is, everybody left! The whole top. They wouldn't come. The only guy come in was Boxer Bradosh. Boxer come in. I said, Can you see him under the lump? He said, Yeah. I said That's his belt. He said, How the hell are we gonna get him out? I said Well the only thing we can do is get a jack. I said I'll clean the coal away and I'll stick a, put like a plank under that we get a heave for the jack, you know. So we did that, and I started jackin' it up, and the lump come up, you know, and finally I got him by the belt, and I pulled--he was doubled up like this. So when I pulled him out, he fell back, on me, you know. And his eyeglasses was on, they weren't smashed. But I looked at his head, and boy he had a hole in about this size right down the side, you know. His helmet was smashed, and Boxer said, Well he's finished, Well I said you didn't think he was alive, did you? So I said, you better go out and tell them to bring in the stretcher. Well then he come in, you know, the other two guys come in. We put him on the stretcher and walkin' out the gangway with him. And you know, as you're walkin'--well, one of the legs fell off, and I said to Friedrich, that's Jonathan, he'll tell you, I said to John, pick his leg up! Oh, not me, he said! He was afraid to pick his leg up! So then the inspectors and all come in there and they asked lots of questions. Oh, they quiz you, on those accidents. Which, it was no fault of ours that the dang thing happened. And maybe if he was more a little bit careful, like I told him he shouldn'ta went in, if he'd only listen, he probably would be livin' today. J : That's right. GP: But when you see all that coal, and you think you can load maybe fifteen twenty cars more, so you're gonna go after it, you know? J : That's faith, George. You gamble with faith. [space]: Yeah, that, ah... GP: Hell, and that roof down there, that used to be, it's still solid, that roof never come in. DM: You're kidding--it's still there? GP: That's right. It's just the coal that come, they call it a top bench, but that roof, that's outa granite, that thing. DM: Down at Number Ten, it's really rocky anyway, the whole area is rocky from the way it looks. GP: Like I was tellin' you, I think, once before, when you're walkin' into the mine first thing in the mornin', look along the pillar, see the loose coal? You know that that's pushin'. J : You're damn right, that's pushin'. GP: You'll hear them big pillars go Whoom! They Crrack! They give you warnin', lots of warning. Heck! We were workin' in a place, we seen it already it was just like, well, I'd said like a God darn ball, like this here, the roof come down, you know? Just keep saggin' in, like that, but it wouldn't break, until we start widening the pillars, you know? Once you shot the sides out, that's come down, she'd come in. And what a rumble! If you ever hear it cavin'... DM: I've never heard anything that big cave. GP: Well, the Number Two here, when it blew the God-darned doors offa the way that the mule there used to go down, we used to go down with the mules, the way that darn things caved in, we were inside. Powder kegs, everything, through the gangway. We come outside, the God-darned door layed about fifty feet away from the entrance! It even blew the door off! That's the

8/23/72 Tape 12-2 --12-- 843 M/M George Petrushka interviewed by Denis Mercier (also M/M Joe [blank])

pressure you get. J : It can't go nowhere else, George. GP: That's right. It has to come out there. Oh, you get some tough ones. [space] M : Well, what do you say, Joe, by the time we get to Hazleton? J : Yeah, we better go, because... DM: I hate to break this up. I knew I'd hit you at the wrong time. GP: You're not breakin' us up. It's just that... M : No, this is all right. We were just coming here for a short... 851........ GP: Well, then, I built that goddarned clubby up there. So, Cash over here,-- you know Cash, he was the carpenter, and [the next word and question mark are handwritten into this typewritten text] Gera? was a carpenter, you know--they were buildin' it, and finally I moved up the case and everything from the garage and we, I even ran [space] two picnics... DM: This was kind of like the clubhouse, your garage was like the clubhouse before this one? GP: That's right. DM: And Danny Cox gave you permission to... GP: To build up there... DM: To build up there with the mule stable wood. GP: That's right. It's all from the mule stable, all of it! DM: That's what I heard, I heard it was. What year was this? GP: Oh, I don't know, it was around, after the war already. It's forty-four was the war, wasn't it? DM: Well, forty-four it was over. GP: Well, it was around forty-five, forty-six, I guess, in around there, because during the war, hell, in the years I was down here and they used to come down in here. So finally I said to them, Nate(?), we're stuck, you know? I needed plasterboard, you needed flooring, you needed lights. I said, Okay, I'll take the money, I'll buy the goddamn stuff, I got Gera and Cash to figure out how much lumber we'd need for it... DM: That's Kascak you're talking about... GP: Yeah. DM: Yeah, okay. GP: And, when I got the panelling and everything, that's, plasterboard was first, we got the panelling later--so I figured everything was all fixed. Well, he said, now look--I said, I don't want to take care of the place. Because I was behind the bar up there, you know. I said, youse guys is formin' a club, youse gotta nominate your own president, your own secretary, you know, and do it the right way. I said, I'll be here until I run two picnics, that's two nights, I said, Saturday and Sunday, which I figure we could come up with about anywhere from twelve to fifteen hundred dollars. DM: That was to be used for the clubby, right? GP: Yeah. They said, you're crazy. I said, I might be crazy, but I know how to make money! So, finally we got, I got two, well about four other fellows with me, you know, and we ordered... DM: Who was the other guy? GP: Dula Whitnan, Gerballa... DM: I don't know who he is, or was... GP: We got together and started this goddarned picnic. I had to go to Beaver Meadow--did you ever hear of Evelyn Hornig's Orchestra, all girl orchestra? DM: Yes! Yes! GP: Well, that's who I got for the two nights. For Saturday and Sunday. DM: This is the first picnic the clubby ever had?

8/23/72 Tape 12-2 --13-- 890 M/M George Petrushka interviewed by Denis Mercier (also Joe [blank])

GP: That's right. Finally we tallied up everything, and we had made a nice profit on it, and the money that I spent on the plasterboard and on the flooring was returned, and then later on they took over, we had a meeting, they nominated their own president, their own canteen man, you know? And they had me down as a, like a trustee, an overseer, you know, to take care of the place. Me and Frank Bananas--if you know Frank up there--so now that they were gettin' along pretty good, I left them. I said, now I'm gettin' old, I can't be up there every day now. Youse better look for somebody else. So finally they have their own now, and they're comin' along pretty good. So now they tell me there's some kind of a friction up there, again... DM: I didn't hear about that. GP: Huh? About these picnics that they were holdin' and stuff. About the women, you know, goin' up, cookin' and stuff. The women... DM: Are they mad? GP: Well, they should be paid for it. They're not compensated in any way for it. They just go up free of hand, you know. DM: You mean, they don't even buy the potatoes for the potato cakes, or anything? GP: Oh, they buy the potatoes, but the women work... DM: The women make all that... GP: They work pretty hard, they should be compensated for the, for the darn stuff that they do up there. That's what I at least think, anyhow. DM: Well, how did you, ah, you got all your own orchestra going, how did you publicize this? GP: Well, we had it in the paper, you know. DM: The Eckley Social Club? What was the name of it? GP: That's what it was, Eckley Sports and Social Club. DM: And I take it you're a lifetime member, are you? GP: Oh no. DM: They didn't make you a lifetime member? GP: No. DM: You're a founding father of the place, and they didn't make you a lifetime member? MP: Do you what I just said, they just had an article in the paper, just not too long ago, and they had, I think there was two of them that were recognized there, but I don't want that to come out, because... DM: Well, you wait and see how it sounds... MP: ...I don't know, as memberships or something. I says to George, well how do you like that. I said, the men that really built that clubhouse, that really worked, ruined their cars, ruined their tires, runnin' back and forth for donations and things, you know... DM: I didn't know you had anything to do with it, and I've been here for three months. GP: Oh, yeah, I was the father... DM: I didn't know that, see, now that's why I want to hang around you more! MP: Not only him, but Mr. Bananas, is still living, and Mr. Dulas, he is in Freeland, he is still living... GP: Gerbala. MP: Pigeon is dead... GP: Pigeon. DM: Pigen Yenshaw? MP: Yes, he was one of them, he's dead. And who else? GP: Gerbala was with us.

8/23/72 Tape 12-2 --14-- 935 M/M George Petrushka interviewed by Denis Mercier

MP: Yeah, well he's in Ohio. GP: He's in Ohio somewhere. MP: You would think now that these young men would say, now wait a minute, who gave us the, you know, who done all this for us? In other words, we stepped right in here, but this was already here. But who put this here? But there's no such a thing as... GP: I told them it was in our garage! DM: Yeah, that's what I, you know, what did you have? Was this you and your friends, is that what it was? GP: Yeah, they are a bunch of the town guys, which, I, we used to gamble and everything down there, you know? DM: In that little garage? MP: Just a place... DM: Just a place to get together. MP: Yeah, just a place, so that the men had a place, just a place so that they'd... GP: During the nights, winter nights... MP: There was no profit in it, so far as that--it was just, you know, to well, they'd come in, they'd buy drinks, and whether for beer or soda was sold, or candy... GP: And Bartels I used to sell at that time, ten cents a bottle. MP: So we went right back into buyin' another case or two, you know, that's all. DM: Who came down here in the early days, do you remember? In your garage? Some of the people that I might still know? MP: Oh, some are already out of here, some moved out... GP: Medash's boys, you know, the young guysm Nagle up here, Jimmy... DM: Jimmy Denion? GP: Jimmy Denion, yeah. Dwarnyar, all them, all them guys used to come down. DM: They never once mentioned it. Probably because they were embarrassed. They probably thought I'd be mad at them, or something. GP: Oh, there's lots of things probably you didn't hear! DM: That's what I mean. That's why, that's why we can't leave now. We don't know half the stuff we should. MP: But [blank] that clubhouse, there was no place for the men to go that was, you know, you had no place for activities or anything. In [space] there [space], you know. I guess like every place and everything, there's a certain bunch will get a hold of it, and then that's it. And the one that really should get the credit, they don't even recognize. DM: Oh, we're gonna see if we can change that. MP: No, no! GP: No, no! I don't want you to even mention that. MP: He wouldn't even want that, huh-uh. DM: We, we are not gonna embarrass anybody... GP: You know, I was gonna ask you a question, too. When they put up one of these boards that they had for, when the war was over, for those boys that were killed overseas, and you have a son whose name is there, and who was in the war...ain't it? MP: Yeah, I guess, it was the ones, was it the ones who were killed, I don't know how they have it there. DM: You mean, what happened to it? GP: No. What I was gonna say, the names is there, but I told her, I says, them names, the poor fellas, they are dead. That don't mean that the live ones should have their name there, too, right?

8/23/72 Tape 12-2 --15-- 982 M/M George Petrushka interviewed by Denis Mercier

DM: Well, I mean it depends on what it is. If it's to honor the war dead, then make it to honor the war dead. If it's to honor those who served in the war, then make it that way. GP: That's what I was thinkin'. Because I got talkin' here, and she said to me when we went up that time how come, she said, our Bobby's name ain't on that list? I said, well our Bobby is alive, I said, he's not dead. MP: No, I think that's all for the dead only. DM: I think it must be just for the dead. GP: That's all it was for, they honored the dead. MP: You know, you have that on, and... DM: You're right. That's okay. See... MP: I mentioned them two names, which I wouldn't want to be out, you know? DM: Who? MP: That I says they were recognized in there. 995