WEBVTT
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Speaker1: Do you have anything here that would be a problem? If there's
anything you don't want to answer, feel free to say you don't want to. But
I don't think there's anything at all that would be a problem. First, let's
have your full name.
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Speaker2: For what you said. Oh, yes, go ahead. John G. Fishcake.
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Speaker1: Would you spell that for Puskaric?
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Speaker2: H.
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Speaker1: And how old are you, Mr. Skerry?
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Speaker2: I'll be. I'm 60 now.
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Speaker1: And where were you born?
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Speaker2: Ellsworth, Pennsylvania.
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Speaker1: That's not very far away.
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Speaker2: L is.
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Then you go on. Hm.
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Speaker1: What about your mother? What was her maiden name?
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Speaker2: Rose Gurvitch g. R d. I c.
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Speaker1: G r. D. I. C. Mhm. And you are a Croatian. And identify yourself
as a American.
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Speaker2: Of Croatian descent. Mhm.
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Speaker1: Uh, what languages do you speak and understand besides English?
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Speaker2: Croatian. Slovak. That's it. Serbian. I can understand Serbian
too.
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Speaker1: That's very similar to your own language, isn't it? And what is
your occupation?
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Speaker2: Steelworker.
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Speaker1: Which. Where do you work?
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Speaker2: National tour. The national too.
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Speaker1: That's here in McKeesport.
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Speaker2: Sport National works in McKeesport.
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Speaker1: And what do you do there?
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Speaker2: I operate a couple machine. It pulls up the couplings on a
pipe.
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Speaker1: Do you make couplings?
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Speaker2: No, I tighten them on a pipe.
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Speaker1: Oh, I see.
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Speaker2: And they put him on an assembly line, and one fella puts them on
tonight. He puts them on for two threads, and then I put them on. I
operate. In fact, I operate two machines. That one machine spins it up
about two threads from the base of the coupling. Then on the big machine,
on the second machine, I pull up to the base of the diamond. It's on that
coupling pipe.
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Speaker1: So that you're tightening and.
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Speaker2: That tightens the pipe ready to be tested.
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Speaker1: What did they do with this pipe when they. What is it for?
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Speaker2: It's for oil lines and gas lines in that they ship them out to
different places.
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Speaker1: Is it large pipe?
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Speaker2: Just depends. What? 4.5in diameter to nine and 5/8 inches in
diameter. We have different sizes.
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Speaker1: This is all for industrial.
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Speaker2: Use, industrial oil places. They usually send them out west to
the oil fields.
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Speaker1: Yeah, they do a lot of oil drilling out there. What church do
you belong to?
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Speaker2: Sacred Heart. Mckeesport.
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Speaker1: And politics. Are you active in any political party?
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Speaker2: No political.
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Speaker1: Party. No political party. You do vote?
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Speaker2: I vote. That's all.
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Speaker1: Um. How long have you lived in Pittsburgh area?
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Speaker2: Mckeesport. 1926 would be 50 years. And I'm here in McKeesport.
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Speaker1: 1936. And you are a member of the CSU? Yes. And in the.
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Speaker2: Croatian Catholic Union.
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Speaker1: Both of those CSU and CCU. They often run together. I was
surprised how many people belong to both. And you said you belonged all
your life, right? How long have you belonged to CSU?
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Speaker2: Csu? I was seven years old when I joined the Junior Order. And
then I was transferred to the Senior Lodge when I was 16 years old. I was
still 15. I they elected me as manager Junior Order. And I was in there
for. Suppose, almost 30 some years.
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When I was elected president of the Lodge. And the.
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Speaker2: Secretary, and that was it.
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Speaker1: But we're going to get into that into all the activities in a
minute. But I want to find out a few things about your parents. Where were
your parents for.
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Speaker2: You in Croatia? Yeah.
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Speaker1: Do you know where?
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Speaker2: Yeah. The name of the Zagoria. That's the name of the town. G or
G.
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Speaker1: And were they both born in the.
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Speaker2: Same same time? Yugoslavia. That's Croatia.
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Speaker1: Yes, I, I, I've been looking on the map lately, trying to find
some of these places. This name sounds very familiar to me. Um, did they
come to this country together? No. No.
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Speaker2: My father was here. He'd come in 1904, and he went back to. Back
to Europe again in 1912. He went back and he got married. And then he
brought my mother back.
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Speaker1: Uh, do you know what port they came in?
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Speaker2: New York. They come by boat.
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Speaker1: I think. Almost everybody came in through New York at that time.
When your parents came here, while your father brought your mother over. I
assume then that he intended to stay in this country. He seemed at that
point, yeah, he had already decided to to stay in their. When they moved to
Pittsburgh. Why did they particularly come to Pittsburgh?
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Speaker2: Mckeesport from McKeesport. He worked in the coal mine. When he
come to this country, he worked in a coal mine and then he worked all, I
guess all his life up until 1926. Then they were unionized in the mines and
that they was on strike and there was no work in their mind in Ellsworth.
So he had to travel with another group of them, used to travel by truck out
to Vestaburg, another coal mine to get, you know, keep on working. So they
got tired of that. So he decided to go work in the city. He thought it
would be better for the children. They'd get a job better than going in
that coal mine. So he moved here in 1926.
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Speaker1: I mean, what did he do here?
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Speaker2: Then he worked up, up and galvanized works. He worked for
several years there, and things were getting hard. There was nine of us
going, going to school, and he had to look for another job somewhere. So he
went and worked in the Columbiana foundry and he worked in the sandblast
there. That was a rough job at Sandblast. But Jean had been like and you
had to sandblast all that heavy. Boilers that they were making, radiators
or making. So he worked there for a while and then he quit there. And then
he went back in the off to galvanize the work and he worked up the
galvanize to it. They closed it up and then he got transferred down to the
National Works in the machine shop. And he was there until he was pensioned
off.
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Speaker1: Did your mother work outside the home? No, I was really I didn't
think she'd have time. Did you have anyone else in your home besides your
immediate family? Like relatives or boarders who lived with you when you
were growing up?
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Speaker2: When my mother come from Europe, we lived in Ellsworth. She had
boarders. She kept boarders. That was a gold mining town. And they had
water. They had a lot of water. She kept him, made lunches and meals for
him. And they had their clothes, washed her clothes in that and had us.
Grandchildren.
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Speaker1: That was all by hand, too.
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Speaker2: That was all by hand. You had to carry the water from like, from
here over to the road. A lot of times. Then we had cows and we kept them
out in the morning. We'd get up in the morning and go out to pasture for
the cows and bring them home and my mother milk them. Then I had to go and
deliver a milk.
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Speaker1: And they sold me out.
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Speaker2: They sold milk. It was $0.05 a quart then. And then deliver the
milk and come back and take the cow back to the pasture and then go to the
store. That's all in the morning.
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Speaker1: Before school.
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Speaker2: Before school yet then go to school.
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Speaker1: That's very hard. You say there were ten brothers and sisters.
It was. How many brothers and how many sisters? Two boys.
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Speaker2: Four. Six brothers and five sisters are living of us. We're not
all living, though. There's one brother and one sister who's dead now. One
brother just died two years ago.
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Speaker1: There still are nine of you.
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Speaker2: And then there's one. One sister died when she was about three
months old. One of the twins. And I have a sister. That's a nun.
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Speaker1: Is she in the Pittsburgh area?
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Speaker2: No, she's out in the Lancaster area in Columbia. She's been
there how many years, Mary?
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Speaker1: Uh, do you have children? No. All right, Let's find out a little
bit about your education and work history for you. What kind of education
do you have?
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Speaker2: This grade school and high school.
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Speaker1: You did graduate high school. Is that here in Kingston? Yeah.
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Speaker2: 1933.
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Speaker1: That's the same year my husband graduated. I wonder, can do you
have any special training outside that for your work or for any other
reason?
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Speaker2: I took up electricity. I knew electricity. Oh, electrical work.
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Speaker1: Uh, like wiring, house wiring, anything. That kind of job,
putting in outlets and things like that. Have you always done that on the
side? I mean, you work and you do this as an extra job.
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Speaker2: Well, whenever we were kids, we made it work. We worked for Gary
for $2 a week and four of us brothers for $2 a week. Yeah. And we'd get up
4:00 in the morning and deliver milk and then then go to school. And on
Saturdays we would work and pick coal. He used to pick coal up at the
Olympia Shopping Center where they had the Olympia Shopping center up here.
Used to pick up there and then sell it for $0.05 a bushel. Picked enough
for ourselves. And then we had to pick it to, uh, to sell.
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Speaker1: When you say you pick coal, uh, what do you mean?
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Speaker2: Was it a coal mine? I don't know if you remember the coal mine
up in. Well, they had a coal mine up there, and a lot of a lot of that coal
was a lot of slack. It wouldn't burn. It was mixed in with this coal and
setting them, putting that slack in the railroad cars to ship out to the to
these coke like Burton and that they used to dump it on the bone pile, what
they call a bone pile. And there was good coal mixed in there. And the
company let us pick that coal.
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Speaker1: Well, then you could go through and pick what.
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Speaker2: Was useful, what was useful. We picked that and then we would
pick it for ourselves. And then we had enough for ourselves. And then we'd
we'd sell it to help my father out. Because raising 11 kids at that time,
that was rough.
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Speaker1: That's right. Then you had to carry it.
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Speaker2: I mean, we had a Wheeler, but mile and a half from Brazil's all
the way down into Christie Park, and we load about 4 or 5 sacks on a
wheelbarrow. And my father bought us a wagon, but that wagon wasn't for
riding. It was for hauling a wagon. That's what it was for.
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Speaker1: He lived in. In the Christie Park area. Yeah. 50 years. Yeah. Uh
huh. Uh, how old were you when you had your first regular job? You know,
actually.
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Speaker2: Well, I worked up the Olympia Park, so I wasn't I was 18 and
then I only worked about 3 or 3 months. I started before the park opened up
and then I got called in a mill and I started working the mill. And I've
been down in there about 42 years now.
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Speaker1: And those are the only two jobs you've had. You still have the
same year. Do you remember in all the I assume you've had different kinds
of jobs in the mill. What jobs you might have liked better than others. Do
you like the job you have now? Yes.
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Speaker2: They're all the same to me. Didn't make any difference.
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Speaker1: Is that good or bad?
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Speaker2: I know one thing. You got to work now. Before it wasn't. Yeah,
it was work, too. Because whenever I started in the mill, they didn't have
no electric rolls to pull the pipe in, and the pipe was on the machine
cutting, cutting and threading pipe. And then the boss would come over. I
was only about 18 years old, just as thin as a broomstick, and I got pipe
in there and the boss's big boss would come on and say, Get moving there.
Put your drill down around here. I'm struggling to get that pipe in the
machine. You had to get it in there and cut it and bevel it and thread it
and then pull it back out again. No, no electric rolls. You had to pull it
in. About 18 years old. What could I do in 18 years old? Just. And that
pipe was heavy and I was.
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Speaker1: Large, long lengths of.
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Speaker2: About 40 foot lengths.
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Speaker1: They weighed a great deal.
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Speaker2: That was that was real hard then.
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Speaker1: Do you think now that things are easier in the mill than they
were when you were a young person?
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Speaker2: Well, they're a lot easier now, but then you got to work. I
don't know what to do. We put this much pipe out. Then we later on we put
on. But right now they think they ain't getting enough of pipe. And we used
to put more pipe on.
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Speaker1: But the more mechanized now you have more, you do less physical
work than you used to have to do.
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Speaker2: But it's tiresome. You got to stand in one place all the time.
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Speaker1: And that's eight hours a day, five days a week. You do work
shifts, too? Yes, you do. How do you feel about that?
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Speaker2: At night turns the roughest one. I used to like to work nights
before, but not anymore. I guess because I'm older.
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Speaker1: Are you able to get enough sleep? All night time. We.
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Speaker2: It just depends. Just depends how much noise around. Like at the
end of the week, it gets me. I'm out. I'm out like a light at the end of
the week.
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Speaker1: How much longer do you plan to work?
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Speaker2: I don't know.
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Speaker1: You could retire at 62. Yeah, that is a US deal. Yeah, but so
that you could get a full pension at 60.
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Speaker2: Get pension now. But I wouldn't get no social Security because I
got 42 years. Mhm.
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Speaker1: So you have enough time. Enough. Yeah. But then you have to wait
until you're 62 years to get Social Security.
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Speaker2: I'm afraid we won't even get that.
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Speaker1: Well, my husband keeps saying it's not going to be any left by
the time he gets out, so I hope he's wrong. But it does look kind of, uh,
doesn't look as sure as it used to. Um, you came to McKeesport, where you
were born and raised here because your parents lived here?
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Speaker2: Yeah, I was born raised in Ellsworth.
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Speaker1: But you. You came here with your family before you were grown?
Yeah. Why did they come here? Well, you told me about him coming here
because he didn't want you in the mine.
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Speaker2: He didn't want us to work in the mines, and he had to travel too
far for work because they were on strike up there, and he had to go out to
another place to get work with the family going.
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Speaker1: Well, this then, too, when you moved to Christie Park or this
area, it was a a better living condition, maybe from the coal mines.
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Speaker2: Oh, yeah. All the way better. They had they didn't have no water
in the house out there or. No, no, uh, washing facilities or nothing.
Everything was outside.
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Speaker1: You were about ten years old when you came here.
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Speaker2: But let's see. 1950. About 11 years old. 11.
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Speaker1: When you first moved in here in this area, were the people in
your community Croatian?
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Speaker2: No, they were all Italians. All Italians.
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Speaker1: Everyone around you get into an Italian neighborhood? I don't
know.
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Speaker2: Oh, all Italians.
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Speaker1: How did that work out? Was it a problem in any way? No.
00:15:25.000 --> 00:15:26.000
Speaker2: We got along with them. It wasn't any problem.
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Speaker1: Because you were different than they were?
00:15:28.000 --> 00:15:29.000
Speaker2: No.
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Speaker1: Can you think of any, uh, problems that you had when you were
growing up? Uh, that might have been because you were Croatian.
00:15:37.000 --> 00:15:40.000
Speaker2: No. No problem. We got along with them all.
00:15:40.000 --> 00:15:43.000
Speaker1: There were no bad feelings or any, uh, discrimination against.
00:15:43.000 --> 00:15:49.000
Speaker2: Nobody discriminated nobody there because they still get along.
Anytime anybody needs anything, they're out there to help them. Hmm.
00:15:49.000 --> 00:15:56.000
Speaker1: Oh, that's good. What's the first organization of Croatians that
you remember that you were aware of? The first organized.
00:15:56.000 --> 00:16:09.000
Speaker2: Group? Croatian Spring Union. That's when I joined it as a
junior order. Then in 1930 and I was 16, I joined the Croatian Catholic
Union, so I had more interest in that after.
00:16:09.000 --> 00:16:15.000
Speaker1: Well, when you say you're doing a junior order in the CSU, what
does that involve? Did you go to meetings? Did you do activities?
00:16:15.000 --> 00:16:25.000
Speaker2: The Junior order is a children's age from zero, I guess was from
one year up to 16. They didn't have no meetings or nothing. That just for
the junior department.
00:16:25.000 --> 00:16:27.000
Speaker1: You just enrolled as a member?
00:16:27.000 --> 00:16:29.000
Speaker2: Just as a.
Speaker1: Member. And that's like an insurance.
00:16:29.000 --> 00:16:49.000
Speaker2: Yes, it was an insurance. And mostly you get that benefit the
parents would get if anything happens to be $600. It was a gradual, uh,
first year would be $17. And in case he died the first year, 17, the
gradual death rate or whatever they call that every year up to ten. And
after ten, it was a full a full death rate.
00:16:49.000 --> 00:16:52.000
Speaker1: And then you can't pay them it just as you would $0.20.
00:16:52.000 --> 00:16:57.000
Speaker2: It was $0.20 a month then each child. Yeah.
00:16:57.000 --> 00:17:12.000
Speaker1: And when you were first aware of the this when you were a little
child, do you remember any important member or organizer that you
particularly remember? During one person you remember is being active.
00:17:12.000 --> 00:17:27.000
Speaker2: No, not exactly. That was I just remember the officers that was
in there at that time. And my father well, in Ellsworth, I remember them.
Some of them. There was one of them still living. In fact, there were a
couple of them still living.
00:17:27.000 --> 00:17:29.000
Speaker1: There were still active in S.f.p.d. You know.
00:17:29.000 --> 00:17:32.000
Speaker2: Know their way up in you. I don't think they are anymore.
00:17:32.000 --> 00:17:38.000
Speaker1: And that could be more than 50 years ago. That's more than 50
years. Um, that would be my.
00:17:38.000 --> 00:17:42.000
Speaker2: My 67 years old. Yeah. But they got all young, young blood out
there now.
00:17:42.000 --> 00:17:51.000
Speaker1: Well, even for 60 years, they would have been. They'd really be
up in age. Um, why do you think the CFD was founded? What was it for the
different?
00:17:51.000 --> 00:18:00.000
Speaker2: I think the purpose was to help the Croatian people to mingle
among herself and, uh, help one another in time of need. That's what it
was.
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Speaker1: They didn't have that sense that they also had sick benefits or
some.
00:18:02.000 --> 00:18:27.000
Speaker2: Time they had sick benefits when they first started was the
launch had to pay their own sick benefits. They paid so much in a month for
their sick benefit and then they'd pay them so much a week and so many
days. But then after that, the Home Office, they had that convention. They
still had the Home Office director segment. And that's why I can't remember
what convention that was. They started that.
00:18:27.000 --> 00:18:31.000
Speaker1: I don't know. Yeah.
00:18:31.000 --> 00:19:03.000
Speaker2: And then this used to be the Croatian Fraternal lodge of
Illinois. And then they liquidated with the Croatian Fraternal Union. So
that's why they used to be the Croatian. Right. Well, noise then when they
liquidated it, but they made it combine it with the Croatian national
rights and they made it the Croatian Fraternal Union. I think that was the
1920. 26 when? When that was organized.
00:19:03.000 --> 00:19:07.000
Speaker1: Uh, what you see, if you the most important organization for
Croatians.
00:19:07.000 --> 00:19:08.000
Speaker2: At that time.
00:19:08.000 --> 00:19:19.000
Speaker1: Yeah. I mean. Yes. Yeah. And you've already told me that it was
important for death benefits and sick benefits. But was it also a social
thing? Did they have meetings, social?
00:19:19.000 --> 00:19:29.000
Speaker2: They had meetings, but they had no social affairs. Well, not
until after the Croatian Fraternal Union War. And then they used to have
these gathering like picnics on Sundays And.
00:19:29.000 --> 00:19:30.000
Speaker1: That special occasion. Yeah.
00:19:30.000 --> 00:19:45.000
Speaker2: They'd have a picnic on Sunday. No different lodges would come
and help them build up the treasure, these picnics and you just had games
and tugs of war and they used to have sell lamb roast lamb and.
00:19:45.000 --> 00:19:46.000
Speaker1: They would sell.
00:19:46.000 --> 00:19:49.000
Speaker2: Like a picnic get together. That's all it was.
00:19:49.000 --> 00:19:51.000
Speaker1: But it was also a money raising, money.
00:19:51.000 --> 00:20:08.000
Speaker2: Raising funds for the largest. And then when these old timers,
they got this their largest build up to where they wanted a nice lump in
their treasury and then the young generation come in, they blew it all out.
It's all gone now. Huh?
00:20:08.000 --> 00:20:13.000
Speaker1: Uh, was there, uh, a large right in the Crystal Park area? No.
Or was it in the. In the. Before the.
00:20:13.000 --> 00:20:59.000
Speaker2: Before they, uh, had the church built? We had our first church
was on Jenny Lynn Street. And then, uh, I never went to that church because
they was just. They just built this one. And. But Father Gabriel was that.
And that was, uh, opened up in 1926. And here before that, the lodges used
to have their meeting that the hall on sixth Street. Well that's tore down
now. And they struggle there. They had to pay their rent before they even
got into the meeting. So then then the Croatian got together and that they
got the new church built and they. Organized the Croatian club among their
members. And that was it. A little club that was only $300. And it was
dollar a day for 90 days.
00:20:59.000 --> 00:21:01.000
Speaker1: But that's a separate thing.
00:21:01.000 --> 00:21:03.000
Speaker2: Separate from the CPU.
00:21:03.000 --> 00:21:11.000
Speaker1: But was it connected with the church itself or was it just a
separate. It's a separate organization. And the church and the Croatian
club are completely separate from each other.
00:21:11.000 --> 00:21:15.000
Speaker2: And same is the same with the Croatian Catholic Union. That's
separate.
00:21:15.000 --> 00:21:18.000
Speaker1: And that's not affiliated with your church, then? No.
00:21:18.000 --> 00:21:27.000
Speaker2: The only thing the Croatian Catholic Union is a more of a
religious organization. It's more for you have to be a practical Catholic
to be in that.
00:21:27.000 --> 00:21:30.000
Speaker1: But does it also have, uh, insurance and things like. Like the.
00:21:30.000 --> 00:21:32.000
Speaker2: Csu?
00:21:32.000 --> 00:21:34.000
Speaker1: And what about social things?
00:21:34.000 --> 00:21:35.000
Speaker2: They had the same thing.
00:21:35.000 --> 00:21:36.000
Speaker1: But more church oriented.
00:21:36.000 --> 00:21:40.000
Speaker2: More church activities.
00:21:40.000 --> 00:21:44.000
Speaker1: Do many of your friends now belong to?
00:21:44.000 --> 00:21:51.000
Speaker2: Someone dropped out. Fellini.
00:21:51.000 --> 00:22:05.000
Speaker1: I know you told me that you were active and that you've been an
officer. Let's talk about your affiliation with the CSU from the beginning
to kind of keep it in order. And tell me when you were an officer and what
you did like from the beginning, if you can do that. I started.
00:22:05.000 --> 00:22:26.000
Speaker2: In 1930. I was only 15 years old and I, uh, they elected me as
manager Junior Order. I took care of the Junior Order department, and here
I was like, I guess. Every five years anyway.
00:22:26.000 --> 00:22:28.000
Speaker3: 30.
00:22:28.000 --> 00:23:08.000
Speaker2: 30? What, about 30 years? I was in the junior order and then
they elected me as vice president of the lodge. At the same time, I was
holding the Junior Order department and then the president of Lodge. He
died and I automatically took over his job. And then at the end of the
year, I give this man, who was a junior order up and I was present for
several years. And then they, uh, then, uh, the secretary, he passed away
and they elected me as secretary of the Lodge.
00:23:08.000 --> 00:23:10.000
Speaker3: I can't think about five.
00:23:10.000 --> 00:23:13.000
Speaker2: Five years ago. I gave it up.
00:23:13.000 --> 00:23:17.000
Speaker1: What lodge number is this? 44. This is all in the same lodge.
What are you talking about? Lodge 44.
00:23:17.000 --> 00:23:40.000
Speaker2: 44. Well, Lodge 44 was the. In 1926, they reorganized. It was a
lodge number 77. Then they reorganized it when they combined the national
of Illinois and C-s-u combined together. So they made they organized this
new they had new lodge made up and it was Lodge 44. But we used to be 77
before, but they combined and they changed the number and they gave us the
number seven.
00:23:40.000 --> 00:23:42.000
Speaker1: Where do you have your meetings now?
00:23:42.000 --> 00:23:43.000
Speaker2: It's taken heart.
00:23:43.000 --> 00:23:46.000
Speaker1: Church home. Church home. And you have since the church was
built? Yeah.
00:23:46.000 --> 00:23:49.000
Speaker2: Every second Sunday of the month. They have it.
00:23:49.000 --> 00:23:51.000
Speaker1: On Sunday in the daytime or the evening?
00:23:51.000 --> 00:23:54.000
Speaker2: The afternoon. 1:00 in the afternoon.
00:23:54.000 --> 00:23:56.000
Speaker1: Uh, what do you do with these meetings?
00:23:56.000 --> 00:24:00.000
Speaker2: They discuss different things and watch for fires to them.
00:24:00.000 --> 00:24:01.000
Speaker1: Is it basically a business meeting?
00:24:01.000 --> 00:24:05.000
Speaker2: It's like a business meeting. What goes on in the organization?
00:24:05.000 --> 00:24:07.000
Speaker1: Is social. Arakan. No, No.
00:24:07.000 --> 00:24:08.000
Speaker2: Entertainment.
00:24:08.000 --> 00:24:10.000
Speaker1: Entertainment is strictly business.
00:24:10.000 --> 00:24:25.000
Speaker2: So they collect their dues at the meeting. They usually mostly
for collecting dues If the members know when they come to the meeting to
collect the dues. Now, that's not even half the time. The members don't
even come to the meeting. The old timers are all gone and the young
generation don't even care to be in there.
00:24:25.000 --> 00:24:30.000
Speaker1: So basically it's, uh, people in your age group, give or take a
bit. And not that many young people, you say?
00:24:30.000 --> 00:24:35.000
Speaker2: Yeah, they're not. Not even my age. We don't go to that. In
fact, I don't even go to that meeting.
00:24:35.000 --> 00:24:37.000
Speaker1: I was going to ask you how often you go. I would have.
00:24:37.000 --> 00:25:13.000
Speaker2: To go all the time. I go to the Croatian Catholic Union because
I don't go to this one CSU anymore. I'm an officer in the Croatian Catholic
Union. And over 47 years now. And then on the I went to convention in 58,
the first convention I went to in 58, and I was elected secretary of the
convention. We had to write the minutes of the convention in Croatian, then
translate it into English and have it ready for the meeting for the
convention floor the next morning. We worked for three and 4:00 in the
morning. I never thought I could be able to do that.
00:25:13.000 --> 00:25:16.000
Speaker1: But you've been reading that long to do that. Listen to the
kids. Yeah, my.
00:25:16.000 --> 00:25:18.000
Speaker2: Wife does, too.
00:25:18.000 --> 00:25:22.000
Speaker1: Yeah. Is that usual with people who are born here? No. If they
can read right.
00:25:22.000 --> 00:25:24.000
Speaker2: Now, the young people don't even care. Reading like, I.
00:25:24.000 --> 00:25:36.000
Speaker1: Think I've run into many people who were born here who can read
and write it. Very true. How do. Yeah. Let me run you up. We were going.
Oh, you must do very well. Yeah, but how did you do this?
00:25:36.000 --> 00:25:43.000
Speaker2: In fact, my father still has the book. He bought me a little
book for $0.10. He bought me. And I learned out of that to read and write.
00:25:43.000 --> 00:25:45.000
Speaker1: You taught yourself. Really? Then you didn't go to. No, I
didn't.
00:25:45.000 --> 00:25:49.000
Speaker2: Go to school or nothing. I learned I had a little book for
$0.10. He still has it down.
00:25:49.000 --> 00:25:54.000
Speaker1: Here in the reading and writing. And then I see you spoke it at
home with your parents.
00:25:54.000 --> 00:26:02.000
Speaker2: Well, our parents. That's the biggest thing that we spoke. They
were married. She spoke with her mother and father. They always talked,
so.
00:26:02.000 --> 00:26:04.000
Speaker1: So you had to eat the good example for the spoken language.
00:26:04.000 --> 00:26:06.000
Speaker2: Now takes only one to properly.
00:26:06.000 --> 00:26:10.000
Speaker1: It is unusual to find people who read and write it. I found very
few.
00:26:10.000 --> 00:26:14.000
Speaker2: I can still I still talk to people. We go to where we're at out
in the street.
00:26:14.000 --> 00:26:17.000
Speaker1: I mean, when you went to Europe, would you say it was very
handy?
00:26:17.000 --> 00:26:27.000
Speaker2: Even down to milk. Would you want to say something to one
another? The guy started looking at what you say. What You talk American,
We talk Croatian. We can cuss them or do whatever we want in Croatian.
00:26:27.000 --> 00:26:38.000
Speaker1: Are there many Croatian working where you work? There are quite
a few of them. No, no. There's not any large Croatian community anymore.
Like a separate. It's all spread out. I guess it's.
00:26:38.000 --> 00:26:39.000
Speaker2: Not that anymore.
00:26:39.000 --> 00:26:47.000
Speaker1: Did you ever have a paid job with the FBI? No. How about labor
unions? Do you belong to labor unions? Well, are you going to kill us?
Cause I assume we have to pretty well.
00:26:47.000 --> 00:26:50.000
Speaker2: I'm sorry. That belong to it.
00:26:50.000 --> 00:27:09.000
Speaker1: He's entitled to his opinion. I would. I would hesitate to ask
my husband what he thought about it out loud. If he every every month in
the union paper comes to get a big speech about that. Are you active at all
in the union Labor union? No. No. Is that the only one you belong to? The
only one. And that's really just because of your job.
00:27:09.000 --> 00:27:26.000
Speaker2: In the Croatian Catholic Union. I said I was that convention I
went to and they elected me as a trial board member and I was on that for
about three years. Then after that free convention and then after that they
elected me a secretary Supreme cowboy.
00:27:26.000 --> 00:27:40.000
Speaker1: That's what I am, right? That's what you're doing now for the.
And can you think back to the Depression years and talk about a little bit
about what your life is like in the Depression? Depression? Oh, you do
remember the Depression? I can.
00:27:40.000 --> 00:27:41.000
Speaker2: Remember that depression.
00:27:41.000 --> 00:27:43.000
Speaker1: Very well. Tell me a little about it.
00:27:43.000 --> 00:28:24.000
Speaker2: Depression. There was nine of us kids going to school. My
father, he's the only one who was working three days a week. He'd get $16 a
pay paydays. The three three week pays and no help from nowhere. No relief,
no nothing. We struggled. Men, boys, we'd have to go out and deliver papers
for $0.75 a week. That's including Sundays, rain or shine. We were out
deliver papers and pick coal. That was when we were a kid. That was before
the Depression. Yet they can deliver. And Milton used to babysit.
00:28:24.000 --> 00:28:26.000
Speaker1: Did you own a home at that time or did you? No.
00:28:26.000 --> 00:28:36.000
Speaker2: We rent it to them. There were company homes and we we rent it
before they paid rent. Rent was $180 a year at that time.
00:28:36.000 --> 00:28:42.000
Speaker1: Sounds very reasonable now, but if you don't have it. Yeah, but
you could manage to keep your where you lived. You know, I used to stay
in.
00:28:42.000 --> 00:28:51.000
Speaker2: My father struggled to pay us back. We used to. In fact, it paid
cold and that would help to cover the taxes. Keep the taxes coming.
00:28:51.000 --> 00:28:58.000
Speaker1: Mhm. And during this time then he just worked less. He was not
out of work for several years during the Depression. Yes.
00:28:58.000 --> 00:28:59.000
Speaker2: No he worked, he didn't get full time.
00:28:59.000 --> 00:29:01.000
Speaker1: But he did have some little work along.
00:29:01.000 --> 00:29:03.000
Speaker2: That's what he got in the mill that's all.
00:29:03.000 --> 00:29:06.000
Speaker1: Mhm. But I don't know if we got it completely. For several years
we worked out.
00:29:06.000 --> 00:29:13.000
Speaker2: Together and I, they worked three, four days a day. Mhm. Did $16
in three weeks. That was a lot of money.
00:29:13.000 --> 00:29:15.000
Speaker1: Metropolitan mishandled I guess then it was very important.
00:29:15.000 --> 00:29:32.000
Speaker2: Then after the Depression, then the 1933, I graduated from high
school and in fact I worked at Olympia Park before that, before I started
the mill and we worked for the day.
00:29:32.000 --> 00:29:37.000
Speaker1: But for the Depression mean you were out of high school when you
started working? I started.
00:29:37.000 --> 00:29:38.000
Speaker2: Miller when I was 18.
00:29:38.000 --> 00:29:41.000
Speaker1: About 1935, 34, 34, yes.
00:29:41.000 --> 00:29:48.000
Speaker2: And then was getting $3.88 a day, ten hours, 12 hours.
00:29:48.000 --> 00:29:49.000
Speaker1: And no vacations. I remember you.
00:29:49.000 --> 00:29:53.000
Speaker2: Made a $50 bill in three weeks where you thought you made a lot
of money.
00:29:53.000 --> 00:30:00.000
Speaker1: And I believe at that time you had to say you had to work for
something like ten years before you got a vacation.
00:30:00.000 --> 00:30:04.000
Speaker2: That's ten years when we first started. Now you work one year
and you get one week.
00:30:04.000 --> 00:30:06.000
Speaker1: Yeah, but you worked ten years before you got your.
00:30:06.000 --> 00:30:07.000
Speaker2: First before you got one vacation.
00:30:07.000 --> 00:30:12.000
Speaker1: I know because my husband's in the same age group. We started
the same time. And I remember we were talking about that.
00:30:12.000 --> 00:30:17.000
Speaker2: Now you got 40 years. You only get four weeks and the guy works
there ten years. Now he gets four weeks to get back.
00:30:17.000 --> 00:30:19.000
Speaker1: Yeah, he did get, uh, 9 to 13 weeks.
00:30:19.000 --> 00:30:24.000
Speaker2: Oh, yeah, I had it three times already. 13 weeks is good.
00:30:24.000 --> 00:31:24.000
Speaker1: Yes, I. I, uh. You see a you in the Depression. Do you remember
any changes in it? Were you old enough to notice? Mention?
