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John Hovanec: Foreign extraction. Now, he is the present mayor. There's
only been three mayors in this town here. Now in Whittaker over here next
to us, they have a Slovak boy that's a mayor. In West Homestead, they've
had 2 or 3 boys that, Slovak boys that have been mayors already.
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Jim Barrett: So you think that, um, that's one example of something that's
changed. I mean, people that came in in 1900 or something as immigrants and
worked as laborers in the mill of are now coming up in a community--
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Hovanec: That is the, you know, the influence. You know, it's beginning to
pay off dividends now. We have, a lot of our class of people are councilmen
and school directors. You just take like Mr. Filo, Marty Yuhos, Al Hovanec,
Stu Jakovich, and we'll say the majority of the school board here is
Slovak. The same way with our council president here and members. We'll
have maybe 4 or 5 councilmen that are Slovak. Barrett: Yeah. What--
Hovanec: Different nationality groups.
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Barrett: What do your, um, uh, children do and did they stay in the area
here, in the general area?
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Hovanec: [simultaneous talking] My boy, he went to school in Shippensburg.
That's in the eastern part, practically in the center part of the state. He
went to college there, and then he became a school teacher. He settled in
Butler. Then he went up to, uh. Uh, the college, it's up in New Wilmington.
What's the name of the college? Westminster. Barrett: Oh, yeah. Hovanec: He
got his master's degree up in Westminster. So you can see, even my kids
have come a good way, too. And my daughter in law, she's a school teacher
up in Butler. And my son in law, he's a shop teacher in Steel Valley here.
So-- But the daughter and her husband, they live in West Homestead. But the
boy and his wife, they live up in Butler. Barrett: Yeah. Hovanec: They live
in sort of like a little affluent community. The people that live there,
they have prepared a brochure of the people that live in this area there.
There's a lot of doctors and lawyers and businessmen and school teachers
and that. Barrett: Yeah. Hovanec: It's a nice little community.
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Barrett: So that's-- that's the second Hovanec generation there.
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Hovanec: Yeah. They have proved their worth in this country already.
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Barrett: Well, I think I'm just about out of questions. Hovanec: You are?
Barrett: I'm going to-- I'm going to take some of your stuff with you. So I
can--
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Hovanec: Well, you're welcome to it. And just sometime, you know, you
don't. If you're out this way. Well, you can--
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Barrett: Oh, no. We'll get it back to you. I mean, if this was my stuff, I
would-- I would really treasure it, and I'd want to get it back. So we'll
be careful with it. Make sure it gets back to you.
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Hovanec: So. And the pictures, why they're of no value--
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Barrett: Oh, no. Let me-- let me look at them because you showed them to
me at the beginning and then you didn't talk about them again. This is the
one that's of your parents.
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Hovanec: Yeah. Now that's my mom and dad. That was taken about 1904. And
this is the wife's.
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Barrett: This is one that I think that we might be able to use in the
brochure.
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Hovanec: And you take a look at that gaudy dress and that hat. [laughs]
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Barrett: Well, I think it's nice.
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Hovanec: Yeah.
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Barrett: You'd never get something like that now because you can imagine
how much it would cost in terms of labor to make a dress like that.
Hovanec: Yeah. [laughs] Barrett: But if I take it-- all we'll do if we use
it, I don't know how much room we're going to.
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Hovanec: Well, you do whatever you want to.
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Barrett: But we would just reproduce it and then get it back to you. So
don't worry about where it'll be or anything. So I'll just take this one
and I'll-- I'd like to, to take this stuff about Father Cox. Hovanec: You
welcome to it.
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Hovanec: And then you want this here thing here. Barrett: Yeah. Hovanec:
This is the whole article what George Swentnam wrote. Barrett: Okay.
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Barrett: And, uh, you had this in an envelope, didn't you? I thought you--
You had one of these things in an envelope. What do we do with that?
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Hovanec: Here it is here. Yeah. Yeah, you'll know that then. Then maybe
this other article. Barrett: Yeah. Hovanec: Will it fit in the envelope, or
is it too wide?
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Barrett: No, it fits. Hovanec: Yeah, right.
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Barrett: Okay then, they'll be safe.
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Hovanec: I was even complimented on that letter from the guy that was the
general agent from U-- From the Steelworkers. He says, How did you know how
to compose a letter like that? Oh, I says, it just sort of come natural to
me. I says, I didn't have much of an education. You-- Barrett: It's a good
one. Hovanec: So I said, one you say about reading. Well, there you are. I
get Reader's Digest, Catholic Digest and oh, my God, I just read any and
everything. I've been a widower now, tt'll be eight years now since the
wife died. God rest her soul. And I got to say, I do a whole lot of
reading. I travel. I've been to Europe four times. Barrett: Really?
Hovanec: Yes. I was in Europe. I've been--
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Barrett: I've been there a little, but.
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Hovanec: I've been. Last year we went to Europe. That was one of the best.
We landed in Amsterdam. From there we went through Belgium and--
