WEBVTT
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Jim Barrett: Today I'm talking with Mrs. Ann Lazur 164 Maple Drive,
Munhall Lazur: Maple Dale Drive. Barrett: Sorry. Maple Dale Drive. Thanks.
And what's your ethnic background? Lazure: You mean, what were my parents?
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Ann Lazur [Lazur]: My parents came from Czechoslovakia. Barrett: Okay.
[long pause]
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Barrett: And what was your maiden name?
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Lazur: Svoboda. S-V-O-B-O-D-A.
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Barrett: But were you born in the United States? Lazur: Yes, I was, uh
huh. Barrett: And were you born in Homestead? Lazur: No.
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Lazur: Universal, VA.
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Barrett: And did you while you were growing up, did you speak Slovak at
all or just English?
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Lazur: I do. I can still speak. Okay.
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Barrett: What did your dad do?
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Lazur: Well, he was a coal miner, I guess, the most part of his life.
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Barrett: And then when did you end up coming to Homestead?
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Lazur: Then when I got married 35 years ago, I guess.
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Barrett: Okay. And when you came to the Pittsburgh area, was Homestead the
first place you came to then?
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Lazur: No, I worked. What's the first place I lived? But I worked in town
for
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Barrett: awhile. Barrett: In Pittsburgh? Lazur: Yes. Barrett: And were you
married at that time, or were you living.. Lazur: No, not when
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Lazur: I first worked in town.
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Barrett: What did you do in Pittsburgh?
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Lazur: Oh, when times were bad, I cooked. Then later I worked for when I
did come to Homestead. I worked for the Navy Department, Naval inspector.
But I worked out of Rankin.
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Barrett: What kind of work was that? Because I'm not familiar with it.
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Lazur: Oh, we used to-- They used to make all kinds of-- It was Atchison's
in Rankin. They made all kinds of fittings for, you know, like T's and
elbows for the Navy and Army.
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Barrett: So then were you expecting-- inspecting parts?
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Lazur: Yeah, we'd inspect the parts and then we would send them out to the
different naval yards and whoever, you know, ordered them.
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Barrett: Was that during the war? Lazure: Yeah, during the Second World
War. Mhm. Barrett: And did you work at that until the war ended then or...
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Lazur: I worked at that till I got pregnant and then I quit.
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Barrett: And since then you haven't worked.
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Lazur: No. As a housewife since then. Barrett: Okay.
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Barrett: Um, what did your husband do when he was working?
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Lazur: Well, he's at work for the railroad.
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Barrett: And did he.. did he come to Homestead to do that, or...
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Lazur: Well, I guess he started in Homestead. Yeah. After he got through
school. He started in Homestead and he was in service for a while. About
four years, I guess.
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Barrett: And were his mom and dad from Homestead, or did he come here?
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Lazur: Well, yeah, they were from, I guess from-- they're Slovak. They'd
come from Austria-Hungary, I guess at that time was under this Slovak or
something. But they lived here since he was born.
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Barrett: So.
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Barrett: So he was born in.
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Lazur: He was born in Dravosburg, you know, in not far from here. Barrett:
Mm. Lazur: Then I guess he was about 11 years old or so when they moved to
Homestead. West Homestead and then Homestead.
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Barrett: Um, can you or would you want to tell me anything about politics
or religion? You know what-- What your, uh-- I mean, if you're a Democrat
or Republican.
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Lazur: Oh, we're both Democrats, and we're Greek Catholic.
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Barrett: Greek Catholic. Okay. I'm I... I'm from Chicago and I was raised
in a Slovak parish, but it was Roman Catholic. And I never-- I just talked
to another lady yesterday that's Greek Catholic.
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Lazur: And I have some friends live near Chicago. Cicero. Barrett: Yeah,
I
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Barrett: know Cicero. Lazur: North River?
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North River is it? Barrett: North
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Riverside, maybe?
Lazur: Yeah. North Riverside. Barrett: That's the area. Lazur: And someone
have a couple that live right there. My daughter lives in Wisconsin, not
far from about an hour's drive to Chicago.
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Barrett: There's a pretty big, you know, Slovak settlement in Chicago.
Cicero is one of the places where there's a lot, but I didn't realize
that--.
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Lazur: Mostly Czechoslovakian, Yeah.
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Barrett: Well, this is what I was going to ask because I talked to a lady
in, um, Munhall yesterday, um, who's also Greek, Greek Catholic. And, uh, I
didn't realize that there were people from Czechoslovakia that were, that
were Greek Catholic. I thought everybody was... Lazur: Oh, no, I
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Lazur: was Roman Catholic to begin with, but I changed over and go to my
husband's church whenever I got married.
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Barrett: Uh huh.
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Barrett: When, um, if-- if you don't mind. That's something I'd like to
ask you about, because one of the things that we were interested in finding
out is, um, how big a thing it was for somebody to marry somebody, like
from a different religion or from a different ethnic background.
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Lazur: Well, it wasn't--. I mean, the Greek, the Roman and the Catholic,
they're about the same. Most of the prayers and everything are about the
same, except the Roman Catholics are under the pope. And, uh-- and the
Greek Catholics have their own pope. Pope, I guess from Constantinople.
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Barrett: Yeah. When? When you married your husband, did you did your mom--
were your mom and dad at all upset about it or anything? Lazur: No. No.
Barrett: Do you know from your experience whether it was, uh, uh, common
say, um, I don't know what to give is a good example, but maybe somebody
that was Polish Catholic to marry somebody that was Slovak Catholic.
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Lazur: Well, see, my husband's folks are Slovak, and we're
Czechoslovakian. There's just a little some of the phrases are maybe a
little different, but I got so I could speak with his mother and all.
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Barrett: So do you think that the fact that, uh, you could talk with her
kind of help the situation? I mean, what if you just spoke Polish and,
uh--.
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Lazur: Well, she spoke some English. She could understand, you know, not
fluently, but she could understand.
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Barrett: Can you remember, um, like when...when young people, uh, got
together here, if, um, uh, say, dances and things like that were pretty
mixed, like Polish and...
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Lazur: Oh, yeah. I remember as a child, we. I lived. I came from a little
mining town. It was called Curtisville. And we used to have picnics every
Sunday night and go to polkas, Saturday night polkas, you know.
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Barrett: And that, that got that was...
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Lazur: Pretty much all. We lived in a neighborhood. It was every
denomination, every religion, every, uh, language you can possibly think
of. It was all mixed together.
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Barrett: Well, what happened to anything like that? I mean, did, uh--
Especially if-- if some people couldn't speak English well yet, I mean,
did-- did you end up with, like, a little group speaking Slovak and a
little group speaking Polish or...
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Lazur: Well, you got So you learned a little a few words in each language,
you know. Barrett: Yeah. Lazur: Or else they had children that could
translate for them.
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Barrett: Because I, I learned my prayers in Slovak, but I never got any
farther than that. So I couldn't really talk to anybody. And how...
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Lazur: Talk Slovak at all and..or do you understand it?
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Barrett: Well, no, I don't really. I mean, I, I know, um, uh, the prayers
that I was saying, I know what they mean, but that's just because I know
them in English, too. And my family's not Slovak. Uh, in your family, how
many kids were there?
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Lazur: I had two brothers and two sisters and myself.
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Barrett: What did... What happened with them? Did they end up coming here
or did they go someplace else?
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Lazur: Oh, my sister was raised in Europe with my grandmother. When my
parents first come over, she stayed over there and she come over when she
was about 16. And then I guess when she was about 22 or 23, she had worked
here and saved her money. And she went back over for a trip... Barrett:
Really? Lazur: ... and got married over there and brought her husband here.
And my brother, I guess he was maybe just about, uh, I don't know was 4 or
5 when he came over, my oldest brother. And the rest of us were born here.
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Barrett: So when your mom and dad came, they brought... they brought
they...
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Lazur: They left the oldest daughter there and they brought the oldest
boy.
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Barrett: When your sister went back to, um, Europe, did she talk at all
about, uh, I mean, do you... do you know how she felt about going back to
Europe or anything?
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Lazur: Oh, yeah, see, well, she she was raised there until she was 16. And
I guess she was anxious to see a grandmother and all the friends and all
and people she grew up with.
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Barrett: But then she still ended up coming back to the United States.
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Lazur: Oh, yeah, she just had a visa you know, for so long.
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Speaker3: Uh huh.
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Barrett: Have you do you ever feel like you would like to go and... And,
uh... Lazur: Visit? Barrett: Yeah.
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Lazur: Oh, yeah. I'd like to do a lot of things, but I guess I won't be
able to.
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Barrett: I know what you mean.
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Lazur: My husband can't travel now, and, uh, I, uh. I'd like to go over
and visit in Europe.
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Barrett: Do people do it sometimes? I mean... Lazur: Oh, yeah.
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Lazur: There's a lot of people. I have a lot of Slovak friends that have
gone over, you know, on trips and... Barrett: Yeah. Lazur: And my
husband's, um... Some friends he knows went over on their hunt for their
honeymoon.
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Mhm.
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Barrett: I think, uh, there seems to have been... Lazur: In fact, I know
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Lazur: a boy now that's taking history, and uh...
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Lazur: at Pitt and he's going over to Bulgaria and Czechoslovakia.
Barrett: Really? Lazur: Yeah.
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Barrett: What's his name? Because I might... Lazur: Miller.
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Lazur: Robert Miller. Do you know.. Barrett: I don't think I do. Lazur: He
graduated this year from Pitt.
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Barrett: Is he going to go on studying history?
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Lazur: Yeah, he's going to go to, uh, Champaign, Illinois, at the
university out there. And he's going to he's going to work on his master's.
And I guess he wants to continue with his doctorate.
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Barrett: So he's interested in East European history. Lazur: Yeah.
Barrett: Oh, that's good. Can you remember what your mom's life was like? I
mean, uh, did she just work at home, or did she work?
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Lazur: Yeah, she worked. She worked just at home. And, uh, we had a farm.
A lot of farm work, a lot of hard work. We had some cows and raised our own
chickens. Barrett: While your
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Barrett: dad was mining?
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Lazur: Yeah. Yeah.
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Barrett: Then what if your dad was mining? Did-- can you remember if your
mom and the kids ended up doing most of the work on the farm? Or did your
dad have to do both or.
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Lazur: Oh, yeah, we all had to work, pitch in, you know, go out and weed
and do stuff around the house.
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Barrett: What did you do with what you raised? Did they sell any of that
or did they? Lazur: Well, we
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used it mostly for our own use. Some of it we sold, very little.
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Barrett: Yeah.
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Barrett: Did your dad ever I mean, like if you got laid off or something,
work on the farm and...
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Lazur: Oh yeah, he worked-- Well, I mean, he'd go out and work before he
went to work. And then when he'd come home, he'd get cleaned up and get
cleaned up and eat and go back out. He really worked hard.
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Barrett: Yeah.
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Lazur: We all worked hard, as I remember.
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Barrett: Yeah, I can imagine. It must have been pretty hard. I can't
picture a guy having to work all day in a mine and also working on the
farm.
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Lazur: Oh, yeah. We all had to work hard. It's a hard life on the farm.
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Speaker3: Yeah.
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Lazur: We walked to school about a mile. We walked home for lunch.
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Barrett: Well, how about this? How did you-- When your mom and dad came
over, how did they end up in that little town with a farm and everything?
And. I mean, what-- What was the connection, do you know?
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Lazur: Yeah. We lived like we lived in a company house. You know, like
they supplied houses for all the workers. Barrett: Uh huh. Lazur: And I
guess there was such a corruption between us kids always fighting and that.
And so I guess when they saved up the little bit of money, they bought this
farm just to get away from all that tension and fighting.
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Barrett: They didn't like the company housing too much then.
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Lazur: Well, it was small. Most of them was like 3 or 4 rooms. And, uh.
And, uh, my dad always liked farming.
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Speaker3: Yeah.
Barrett: Did he do-- Did he do any of that in, uh, Czechoslovakia?
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Lazur: Well, I guess out there, most of them raised their own stuff, you
know, or worked. I don't know just what he did. I think they worked with
Clay. Clay that they made dishes out of. Yeah, and I could hear him talking
about that.
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Barrett: Huh.
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Barrett: So then he probably in the old country, he wasn't just doing
farming. He did a little industrial work. Yeah. Yeah. Was that. Do you know
anything about the town that your mom and dad came from?
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Lazur: Yeah. They talk about Prague and, uh, Czerny Kosterlitz and all
around there.
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Barrett: They came from a smaller town, but they. They went into the
bigger towns. And did. Did your dad work in one of the larger towns?
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Lazur: I don't recall that.
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Barrett: What about the, um-- time period for this kind of stuff. When
would you have been, you know, living with your dad when he was a minor?
Would that be like the 20s?
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Lazur: Well, I was born. He lived in Universal before he was miner. He
worked in where they made cement. Universal cement from rotten. Universal.
Pa He worked there and then he got a job out in Curtisville. It was like
three mining towns together. And I guess I must have been about 6 or 7
years old. I think I started in the second grade when we moved to this
mining town.
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Barrett: And what what year were you born?
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Lazur: 1914.
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Speaker3: Okay.
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Barrett: Can you remember? See, this is the kind of stuff I should know,
but I can't remember the dates for it very well. But can you remember any
kind of union activity among miners?
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Lazur: Oh, yeah. They had. They well, I don't know if they had unions then
way back, but I remember them going on strike every April. Barrett: Every
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April. Lazur: Every
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April. Without a doubt. And I remember us kids would stand on the corner.
They would get these cabs in from West Virginia and we'd yell at them
scabs. They went by and the poor miners, you know, I mean, they'd be on
strike for a couple of months. And they had a company store and they would
run up maybe a bill for 6, $700, you know. And of course, when they went
back to work, by the time they paid that off, there was another strike.
Yeah, it was real hardship, you know.
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Barrett: Well, when that kind of thing happened, uh, and when they when
they tried to bring these guys in from West Virginia, did the whole
community kind of come together to, you know, uh, to yell at the guys and
everything or...
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Lazur: Well, I know us kids would stand down there and I guess they had
meetings, you know, at the union. They had a union hall would have meetings
and settle their differences or whatever they did. Yeah, I was quite small,
you know. I remember then.
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Speaker3: Yeah.
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Barrett: It sounds like they had a set wages like every year, you know.
Lazur: Yeah, every
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Lazur: year they would renew their contract.
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Barrett: And every year there
was a strike. Lazur: Back in those days. I don't know what they called it.
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Barrett: No, that's that's right. I think it's still it. Can you remember?
Um...
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Speaker3: Oh, I.
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Lazur: Remember one time they even, uh... we even had to move out of the
houses and they built, uh, a lot of, uh, like, barracks.
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Barrett: Did the union build this stuff?
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Lazur: I don't know who built it, but we-- I remember we had to move into
them.
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Speaker3: Yeah.
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Barrett: Because it sounds...
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Lazur: Like barracks and all depends how many you had in the family. You
got so many rooms. I remember even the union hall, they made like,
apartments out of that and people lived in that.
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Barrett: But I'm wondering if maybe, uh, during the strike, the company
just threw people out of the houses.
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Lazur: I don't know just why we had to move. Oh, I think they. They got
rid of all they tore all the houses down. This one section was called
Michigan Hill. There was about 40 or 50 houses there. Barrett: Yeah.
Barrett: And they tore them all down and I think they just left one house
up there for a family. That was all. The children were disabled and they
left them live in it as long as until they died off.
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Barrett: Can you Something I always wondered about. And it's not the kind
of thing that you can find out about from a book or anything is, um, what
the, what the church's attitude towards, uh, stuff like unions and strikes
was and things like that. Can-- You were quite young then, but I mean, do
you remember?
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Lazur: Well, there.
Lazur: Wasn't many churches out there. There was a Greek Catholic church
out there, the Orthodox. It was an old, just a small church. And then there
was one Catholic church and you had to walk to each of these. That's all I
remember.
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Barrett: So you-- you don't remember if, uh, um, like, if the men were on
strike or something, if the priest supported them or thought that was a bad
thing. That's--. And you said your dad was a miner all his life then?
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Lazur: Yeah. Well, yeah, till he came, like, in maybe when I was about 6
or 7 years old. So I would say. How old would I been when I was about six.
Subtract six years from 1914. Barrett: Yeah. Uh, six is 14. Lazur: About
1912.
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Barrett: Yeah.
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Barrett: Yeah. Even earlier. Even earlier, around 1908 I'd say.
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Lazur: About 1910 he's been farming, up until he retired.
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Barrett: And when he, uh, you said first he he got that job in, like, a
cement works in, in Universal. How-- do you know how your mom and dad made
that, made that connection? I mean, like, why-- How he was able to get a
job or
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Barrett: why he came.
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Lazur: They had friends that, uh, used to visit, and I guess they told him
about a job, and then they come out, you know, they got like a company
house and they lived in that until we bought the farm.
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Barrett: Did he know about that before he even came from the old country,
or did he just come over first and then look for a job?
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Lazur: Well, I guess he had friends here. Maybe they corresponded and, you
know, found out that there were most of them figured they'd get something
to do here, which would be much better than they had over there.
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Barrett: I guess that much is probably right too, but yeah. So your mom,
in addition to the stuff that, um, every mother has to do, also had to do a
lot of farm work. Yeah. Work with animals and stuff like that.
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Lazur: Yeah.
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Lazur: Even I milked a cow once mother was sick, so I had to go up and
milk her.
00:19:22.000 --> 00:19:23.000
Barrett: But normally she would do that?
00:19:23.000 --> 00:19:34.000
Lazur: Yeah, she would do that, or my father. But mostly she would do it.
Well, we just had it like one cow or two, just for our own use. We didn't
do any more than that, you know. Barrett: When
00:19:34.000 --> 00:19:38.000
your dad got up so early in the morning like that, did everybody get up
with him? Can you remember? Or did he.
00:19:38.000 --> 00:19:48.000
Lazur: No, he'd get up and my mother would get up, I guess get his
breakfast and pack his lunch bucket. And then we kids would get up, you
know, just time to go to school.
00:19:48.000 --> 00:19:50.000
Barrett: What was the school like?
00:19:50.000 --> 00:20:23.000
Lazur: Oh, they had one building which had about four rooms in it. And,
uh, outside toilets, no running water. We had a pump. And then there was,
uh, gradually they got like one room houses all around this one room
schools, like, you know. Barrett: Yeah. Lazur: And there was four in there
and then they had one one, two, three. There was like eight grades. And if
you went to high school you had to travel like maybe to Trentham or Etna.
But there was no high school there. There is now, but not at that time.
00:20:23.000 --> 00:20:25.000
Barrett: And there was no Catholic schools in the area?
00:20:25.000 --> 00:20:27.000
Lazur: No, no Catholic schools.
00:20:27.000 --> 00:20:36.000
Lazur: They just got Catholic schools there within the last maybe ten
years, not even that out there. That was where I lived when I was a child.
00:20:36.000 --> 00:20:43.000
Barrett: Did you say that the, uh, place was kind of mixed up or was it--
Was it heavily Slovak or...
00:20:43.000 --> 00:20:55.000
Lazur: No, it was everything. We had every nationality under the sun and
everything. [phone ringing] Well, excuse me. Barrett: Sure.
00:20:55.000 --> 00:21:02.000
Barrett: Okay, I-- You told me a lot about what it was like when you were
young. Did you have any children?
00:21:02.000 --> 00:21:04.000
Lazur: Yeah, I have one daughter.
00:21:04.000 --> 00:21:08.000
Barrett: And where did she end up? Did she stay here or is she away?
00:21:08.000 --> 00:21:27.000
Lazur: No, she, uh. She stayed here till she got married, and they lived
in Swissvale. Then her husband did research, so they moved to Watertown,
Massachusetts. Then they moved to New Jersey. And now she's living in
Wisconsin. Hm.
00:21:27.000 --> 00:21:32.000
Barrett: And what did, uh... What did her husband do?
00:21:32.000 --> 00:21:47.000
Lazur: Well, he has a doctorate in metallurgy and materials science, so he
did research, and she has her master's. She did, uh, she took biology.
Biology and natural sciences. She got a fellowship for that.
00:21:47.000 --> 00:21:49.000
Barrett: Did she go to Pitt to begin with?
00:21:49.000 --> 00:21:58.000
Lazur: No. She went to Chatham for four years, and then she got her
master's at Carnegie Tech. And her husband was formerly from North
Carolina.
00:21:58.000 --> 00:22:00.000
Barrett: And where-- did she meet him at Carnegie?
00:22:00.000 --> 00:22:06.000
Lazur: Yeah, Carnegie, yeah.
00:22:06.000 --> 00:22:16.000
Barrett: A lady that I talked to yesterday and I hope I don't have all the
schools and churches mixed up, but, um, her name is Lesko.
00:22:16.000 --> 00:22:17.000
Lazur: Yeah Mrs. Lesko.
00:22:17.000 --> 00:22:18.000
Lazur: My friend, yeah.
00:22:18.000 --> 00:22:33.000
Barrett: And she was telling me about the, um, school. Did your daughter
go to that school or did she just go-- Did she go to public school? It was
a, um. I think Greek Catholic or. No, I'm sorry. Maybe it was Russian.
00:22:33.000 --> 00:22:41.000
Lazur: No, she's-- They belong-- They're Greek Catholic, too. But they're
not Orthodox. They belong like the Romans. She must have gone to Saint
John's, her kids.
00:22:41.000 --> 00:22:47.000
Barrett: So that-- her-- Her church would be like, uh, a Greek rite within
the-- Lazur: Yes.
00:22:47.000 --> 00:22:54.000
He went to western and eastern rites there under the pope. But we're not. I
see. We're Orthodox. And they're like. They're more like the Romans.
00:22:54.000 --> 00:22:58.000
Barrett: Did your school have a-- I mean, sorry, did your church have a
school then or--
00:22:58.000 --> 00:23:12.000
Lazur: Oh, no, I see, well, I didn't live here since she's probably lived
here a lot longer since she's married. I, I have only lived here since I'm
married. Yeah, we went. I went to school out in Curtisville and my daughter
went here, but she went to a public school.
00:23:12.000 --> 00:23:13.000
Barrett: Public school? Yeah. Yeah.
00:23:13.000 --> 00:23:30.000
Lazur: She started out at, um. The one on Homestead Duquesne Road.
Franklin School was an old building, and they just had about six rooms. And
then when they got through the sixth grade, then they moved over to
Woodlawn.
00:23:30.000 --> 00:23:31.000
Barrett: Yeah.
00:23:31.000 --> 00:23:32.000
Lazur: Did you hear about Woodlawn?
00:23:32.000 --> 00:23:33.000
Barrett: I don't know anything about it.
00:23:33.000 --> 00:23:45.000
Lazur: No. Woodlawn is up in the park. And then, uh, Woodlawn. Then she
went to Lower Munhall on 12th Avenue.
00:23:45.000 --> 00:23:48.000
Barrett: And then what high school did she go to? Lazur: On 12th Avenue.
Barrett: That's--
00:23:48.000 --> 00:23:49.000
Lazur: That's the one was the select
00:23:49.000 --> 00:23:57.000
Lazur: junior high school. And then 12th Avenue was a senior high school.
00:23:57.000 --> 00:24:24.000
Barrett: I haven't asked any other people I've been talking to, but, um...
Your dad was a miner and now you're your daughter, you know, has her
master's degree and is married to a guy with a doctorate and everything.
How did you-- Why do you think that happened? I mean, how do you, um, feel
about education and...
00:24:24.000 --> 00:24:46.000
Lazur: Well, we would have liked to have one, but our parents were poor,
and we couldn't, uh, send us anywhere to go to school. We were lucky. Most
of the children in our neighborhood even quit school. You know, some of
them didn't even finish eighth grade as soon as they were 16 or something.
They all got working certificates that they could go out and help their
parents. And I myself went to work at an early age.
00:24:46.000 --> 00:24:55.000
Barrett: But, um. Do you think that, uh, um, your ideas about an education
had any effect on what your daughter did or--.
00:24:55.000 --> 00:24:56.000
Do you think.
00:24:56.000 --> 00:25:12.000
Lazur: Yeah, I said yeah. She-- Well, she was an honors student right
along. Always made high honor roll. And I figured, well, with that, she
should put it to use you know. Barrett: Yeah. Lazur: So we did all we could
to be able to send her, you know. And I'm not just having [inaudible].
00:25:12.000 --> 00:25:35.000
Barrett: And that's hard, I guess. Cause, uh, my brother just, um,
finished his doctorate, you know, And I'm working on mine now. And my dad
is a policeman in Chicago, and I think sometimes they, uh, you know, they
wonder how all of it happened and everything, but...
00:25:35.000 --> 00:25:46.000
Lazur: Yeah, well, we just didn't have the opportunities. And, I mean,
everything progresses, you know. Barrett: Yeah.
00:25:46.000 --> 00:26:01.000
Barrett: This. This is kind of a hard question, but, um, even if it's just
in a general way, how do you think Homestead has changed from the time that
you first saw it? You know, like from the time that you came here to now?
00:26:01.000 --> 00:26:54.000
Lazur: Well, I know I worked up in I worked in Pittsburgh and my first,
first impression of Homestead, I know we were going over to visit. I was
going over to visit somebody in West West Mifflin. And this nurse friend of
mine was with me and she said, Oh, this is the new Homestead Bridge. It
just opened up, you know, we went over it and then we went to West
Elizabeth. And when we got married, we just lived down like near the river
on Third Avenue. Barrett: Yeah. Lazur: And they were just in the midst of
tearing all those homes down there to make room for the mills. They
expanded and they also build that project in West-- Hazelwood on top of the
hill. Barrett: Yeah, I know what you mean. Lazur: And all those houses were
sold. So then we, my-- my husband's parents bought up in Homestead Park
near where Saint Mary's Cemetery is. You know where that's at?
00:26:54.000 --> 00:26:55.000
Barrett: Yes.
00:26:55.000 --> 00:27:38.000
Lazur: And, uh, Duquesne Road and all this up here. This was all farms,
this project up here. I guess we're here 15 years. So I would say this is
about 20 years since this is built up. And there were not many new homes.
And it just seems after the war that people started to build and buy
houses. And I know we looked at houses when my first husband, I mean, when
my husband first came out of the service and homes at that time were, say,
like about nine five and everybody said so don't buy one that's too
expensive. They'll come down and they've really gone up about $1,000 each
year.
00:27:38.000 --> 00:27:40.000
Barrett: Yeah, it seems strange.
00:27:40.000 --> 00:27:49.000
Lazur: And uh, well, there's a lot of new buildings and a new mill. And of
course, New Glen Hazel Bridge.
00:27:49.000 --> 00:27:53.000
Barrett: And when did-- When did that, uh, new bridge go up?
00:27:53.000 --> 00:27:54.000
Do you remember?
00:27:54.000 --> 00:27:59.000
Lazur: Oh, that must be there about ten years or more. I'm not-- I'm not
so sure any more.
00:27:59.000 --> 00:28:03.000
Barrett: And when did you say it was-- it was that you first came to
Homestead when you got married?
00:28:03.000 --> 00:28:04.000
Lazur: 1941.
00:28:04.000 --> 00:28:16.000
Barrett: 1941. Do you remember, um, what the town itself-- I mean-- I mean
by the town, I mean like Eighth Street and down near the river. What that
was like and how it's changed at all.
00:28:16.000 --> 00:28:44.000
Lazur: Well, I mean. Well, they put some new stores in, and of course, all
that was taken up by the mill and those new churches were built. I'm trying
to think what else. But most of the buildings are pretty old and Eighth
Avenue outside, maybe being remodeled with a few additions of stores and
that it's almost the same, I would say.
00:28:44.000 --> 00:28:52.000
Barrett: Because, uh. Sometimes when you look at it, it really looks, uh,
you know, a lot of things are closing up and it looks like a tired old
town.
00:28:52.000 --> 00:29:18.000
Lazur: All these shopping centers around, you know, a lot of people go out
to shop at Homestead. I don't know. It doesn't seem like there's too many
people there. Barrett: Yeah, well... Lazur: Like, they closed even like
there was a lot of grocery store there even going on like around Kennywood
Kroger's left and amps out there now and then there's a shopping center in
West Homestead, you know that Shop and Save. Barrett: Shop and Save. Yeah.
00:29:18.000 --> 00:29:33.000
Lazur: And a lot of the a lot of the things are going out and there isn't
too much shopping I don't think goes on because of course I don't go out
that much anymore now. But uh, a lot of people go to town and...
00:29:33.000 --> 00:29:41.000
Barrett: When they tore down all that old stuff down towards the river,
the, the housing that you were talking about and the people had to move
out, where did those people move to?
00:29:41.000 --> 00:30:04.000
Lazur: Well, a lot of them went to the project. Glen Hazel Project. If you
made a certain amount of money, I think I don't know if it was like that.
And a lot of people just relocated like up in the park and most of them
went to the park and maybe to Homeville, West Mifflin. West Mifflin was
built up. It was just nothing but farms too. And and they build a lot of
homes and new schools.
00:30:04.000 --> 00:30:11.000
Barrett: Was that kind of, uh, did that seem like a move up to people? You
know, I mean, if they were, were like making more money or had money saved
and...
00:30:11.000 --> 00:30:13.000
Lazur: Yeah, everything boomed then, you know.
00:30:13.000 --> 00:30:15.000
Barrett: Yeah.
00:30:15.000 --> 00:30:21.000
Lazur: Well, a lot of them just bought older homes or what they can
afford, you know. Depends what they got like for their homes, you know.
00:30:21.000 --> 00:30:26.000
Barrett: Was that Glen Hazel project? Did that end up being a lot of
people that-- that were working in the mill then.
00:30:26.000 --> 00:30:31.000
Lazur: Yeah then they build a project down here too.
00:30:31.000 --> 00:30:36.000
Speaker3: I haven't seen it.
Lazur: Munhall Homestead. Sure. You've seen this going up here, haven't
you?
00:30:36.000 --> 00:30:38.000
Barrett: Uh, is it. Is it on West End?
00:30:38.000 --> 00:31:38.000
Lazur: Yeah. You've come on out here you can...[tape ends]
