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Jim Barrett: I'm trying to get an idea if there was different, like
cultural groups within the community. So, uh, Mr. Duffy, for example, can
you remember if was there, can you remember something like an
Irish-Catholic culture within the community? I mean, every people,
everybody goes to the same church and, you know, same functions and things
like that.
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Martin Duffy: They all are people that I know around Homestead here or
West Mifflin or Mifflin Township at that time here, went to their own
church here, and they got together on a Sunday afternoon there. And that
was it. Barrett: Yeah. Frank Leach: I had a book that I lent to this
messenger reporter. In that book, it states that there were some somewhere
around 74 different churches.
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Barrett: Wow. Yeah, that's really something.
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Duffy: Steel Valley here. Yeah. 74. Yeah. Leach: Well, Ku Kluxers was up
there, a Ku Kluxers was up here in the upper Homeville up there. Right
there where the old swimming pool used to be up there. Barrett: Really?
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Barrett: Nobody's told me about this. Why don't you tell me a little bit
about it?
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Leach: They used to come up there in horses, white horses there, and they
had white robes on them there and they'd they put a big cross up there and
a light that and the horses, men would ride the horses around the circle
there, you know, keeping the crowd outside there. People didn't belong to
them on the outside. Barrett: Yeah. Leach: And they had their meetings
there or that that went on for quite a while.
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Barrett: Can you remember when this was?
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Leach: Yes, I can. I think that was in the 30s, wasn't it? Duffy: Yes,
that was in the 30s. Right. Leach: They didn't have their meetings. Every--
every meeting was not held up there. Duffy: [simultaneous talking] Oh, no,
no. Not every. They would change it. Maybe out in Homestead Park, that's
all. They would have a meeting out there. Leach: And then there would be
another place, what they call nigger wool, nigger wool hill up where the
manor is now. What is the manor that's up there in the village up in West
Homestead? Duffy: Calhoun.
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Leach: Calhoun. Barrett: Yeah. Yeah, I know what you mean.
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Leach: I've seen it. Calhoun Manor and Calhoun. They had big meetings up
in there.
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Barrett: Now, was anybody ever able to figure out who--Who those people
are? I mean, like, where would you think they would come from? I mean, what
kind of--
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Leach: Well, some of them are was our local residents. Barrett: Yeah.
Leach: And you had your suspicions. Barrett: Yeah. Leach: Once in a while,
you'd see somebody going out of his home with his-- His sheet underneath
his arm. Duffy: I remember one time when I was with Hank Carrick and Suds
Carrick, that's when Hank Carrick was Squire up there, up ____[??]. He
invited me up to the house up there, you know, he wasn't too old there at
that time there. And we went up there and we had to do something down the
cellar. I don't know what the hell it was down the cellar there. We went
down there. Jim Carrick. Jim Carrick was making crosses in there, you know.
So yeah.
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Barrett: So he's one of them.
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Duffy: Then we figured, well, I figured right away that he belong to them.
Barrett: Yeah.
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Barrett: Well who was it that they didn't like? Could you at least figure
that out?
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Duffy: Catholics and the Jews. Leach: [simultaneous talking] They was
against the Catholics and the Jews. Duffy: Niggers. Leach: Yeah, yeah,
yeah.
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Barrett: Just about everybody.
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Leach: And, in fact. Every all the Catholics and the Jews called the Klu
Kluxers Black. Barrett: Yeah. Leach: It was so black against them that they
called them.
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Barrett: Well, didn't anybody-- I don't I don't know all the statistics
and everything, but it seems to me like Homestead by that time must have
been pretty heavily Catholic. And-- Didn't anybody ever give those people a
hard time? I mean.
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Duffy: Not that I know of.
Barrett: Did the Catholic kids resent the fact that they--
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Duffy: But I know they were up operating up there. The Ku Kluxers was
operating out right outside of Kennywood Park up there. Park or somewhere,
because I know that.
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Barrett: Yeah.
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Leach: But they nobody knew but them where this meeting was going to be.
Barrett: [simultaneous talking] I see. Yeah. Leach: I get it. And the
meeting was all over before anybody found out that they was there.
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Barrett: So even if you wanted to go and give them a hard time, you
wouldn't have been able to do it. Yeah, but they they never bothered any
individuals, as you remember. They just had these meetings.
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Duffy: [simultaneous talking] Not that I know of. Only in in political
jobs and jobs in the mill. Barrett: Yeah.
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Barrett: You mean you think that some of these people had political
connections to--
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Duffy: Oh, they had connections-- Leach: [simultaneous talking] Oh, yeah.
Duffy: And-- Leach: --and at one time, Munhall Borough itself, they
wouldn't hire a Catholic school teacher.
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Barrett: Yeah.
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Leach: And because of these Klu Klux. Barrett: Yeah.
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Barrett: And that seemed to hold on pretty late, like even into the 30s,
maybe.
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Leach: Yeah, up until the 30s. And that's when things started to change
over. And it was just. It's just like New York City or New York proper
itself. And at one time it was controlled by the Irish and they, they sort
of got pushed out and was taken over by the Italian people. Barrett: Yeah.
Leach: And what is the dominating nationality there? I don't know. Now it's
probably all split up. Barrett: Yeah.
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Barrett: Yeah, yeah. And you-- you saw some of these kind of changes
taking place in the Homestead area too?
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Leach: They, they took place in the 30s. Barrett: Yeah.
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Barrett: There's a lot of times I, I did notice when people were talking
to me about politics that there are a lot of Irish names they mentioned
when they talk about, you know, politicians in the area.
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Duffy: Well, your-- your second ward in Homestead was a congregation of
Irish, Slavish-- Leach: Slavish, Polacks or-- or whatever you want to call
them-- Duffy: Up to about Fifth Avenue. Barrett: Yeah.
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Barrett: So that's below the tracks you're talking about.
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Duffy: Yeah. Leach: Up to about Fifth Avenue. And between Fifth Avenue and
Seventh Avenue was, was mostly Black and Mexican. Duffy: Yeah. Barrett:
Okay. Duffy: They, they brought a bunch of Mexicans in here during that
strike here, you know, and some of them stayed.
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Barrett: When was that-- which, which strike do you mean?
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Duffy: 18-- Leach: 1892. Duffy: Yeah. 1892. Yeah. The big strike. And then
you, you had another strike in 1919. Barrett: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Leach: When
they brought a lot of Mexicans in for labor.
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Barrett: Now can you remember--
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Duffy: Bring them in on freight cars. Leach: Yeah.
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Barrett: That's this 1919 strike. Nobody remembers very much about it.
I've asked several people about it and--
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Duffy: They called it the hunky strike.
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Barrett: Because only foreigners supported the.
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Duffy: The foreigners was the ones that went out on the strike. Barrett:
Yeah. Duffy: They wanted to be recognized in the mills. Barrett: Yeah.
Duffy: Which they wasn't. And they went out on the strike and they, they
brought the state constabulary in there on horseback. They tried to break
them up, you know, they would get in groups on the street corners or out in
front of their homes. And the state constabulary would come around with
these big long nightsticks on the horses. Barrett: So-- and-- Duffy: The
horse-- horses would push these men up on their porch and make them go,
right-- Leach: Yeah, that's right. Duffy: They went right in the house,
their horse, and pushed that man get off the porch, get in the house. And
the horse would go push him.
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Barrett: So did that divide the community up between then, like foreign
and native?
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Duffy: They sort of got a foothold in with the corporation, the company at
that particular time. And some of them was blackballed. Barrett: Yeah.
Duffy: And some of them couldn't even get any jobs. Yeah, but it took a
little, little working even after they got back to work for them to get in
up on some of the other jobs. Barrett: Yeah. Duffy: It took a long while.
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Barrett: Who was it that was organizing them? Do you know?
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Duffy: Uh, no, I couldn't say.
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Barrett: There was no real union at that time. There was no organized
union.
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Duffy: They. They had-- What the-- The coal union. They-- they belong at
that time. And I don't think the the foreign-- the foreign people even
belong to it.
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Barrett: Yeah. They just went out on strike without the union.
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Duffy: Went out. Something like a wildcat strike. Barrett: Yeah. Yeah.
Duffy: But it was getting so, so serious that the, the town or the
townships got the state to bring the constabulary in. Barrett: Yeah. Duffy:
Which is our state police now. But then they was on horseback-- Barrett:
Yeah. Duffy: Real long weighted clubs.
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Barrett: So there was a lot of trouble during that.
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Duffy: There was a lot of trouble, was a lot of heads broken.
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Barrett: Homestead then and for a long time before that and a long time
afterwards too was known as a, um, open shop town, you know, that there
were no unions, no union could get into the steelworks or anything for a--
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Duffy: Long while. And I think it started to organize in the early 30s.
Barrett: Yeah. Duffy: And possibly in 1930, 35, it got. It's pretty well
organized.
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Barrett: That's Steelworkers Organizing Committee. The CIO. Duffy: Yeah,
that's right. Barrett: And let's see. I didn't ask you about-- about your
job, Mr. Leach. Where-- Where have you worked during your life? What were
your--
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Leach: Well, I even-- when I was graduated from eighth grade, I, I worked
for a year at the age of 14 with Kramer's Shoe Company on Eighth Avenue.
And when he found out my age after he worked there a year, he found out my
age. He had to lay me off. So I was able, at the age of 15 to to get a job
over in Oakland at, it was a store by the name of Johnson's, but it was a
big meat market and a dairy store. Maybe it might have been longer than
this, but it wasn't a big meat counter on one side. And the dairy affair
all on this side. And they had about 6 or 7 butchers working there and 4 or
5 clerks in the dairy department. And I got myself a job over there.
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Barrett: What were you doing for them? Like stock work or something?
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Leach: Stock-- Like a stock boy. Yes, I am. You know, the Donahues and so
forth had these big pitchers with pickles and olives and stuff. Well, I had
to keep those supplied for 54 gallon barrels down in the cellar. Barrett:
Yeah. Leach: I would bring them up in wooden buckets, fill them up
sauerkraut, bring up their tubs of butter and cut it. You would have to
take the bucket off and turn it upside down. Take the bucket off, and then
you use a big wire saw and you went down maybe about that far and you
pulled that clear through. Barrett: Yeah. Leach: Then he used a knife to
cut your-- Cut your pot. You set it in the refrigerator.
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Barrett: So that was that stuff coming right from the farm then or
something?
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Leach: Yes. Yeah. It came right in. Big tubs, huh? Wooden wooden tubs.
About that big. That high and. Oh, maybe that big around.
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Barrett: Yeah. How long did you have that job?
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Leach: I had that job one year. And at 16 I was able to get a job in the
steel mills as a messenger boy.
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Barrett: Here in Homestead?
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Leach: Homestead Steel Works.That was in 1922. Barrett: Okay.
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Barrett: Okay. Give me some idea of your-- Of your progression in the
mill. Like, what did you do after you were a messenger boy?
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Leach: Well, they have a line of sequences that if there was a job, came
open. And in this mill, see, there was groups of mills. Some of them would
be plate mills and some slabbing mills and some would be open hearths and
so forth. But I went into this slab and plate, what they call a slab and
plate department of Carnegie Steel. Barrett: Okay. Leach And I took a
number of jobs. Up until 19 well, 1923, I got into a slabbing mill. I was
sort of a weighmaster slip maker, that-- that is after the platess is all
rolled out, they weigh them and put the the order number where it was
supposed to be shipped to and all. And I kept records of those. And in 1923
I got a job in what they call a slabbing mill. It was what they call them
weighmaster and hot sheet maker there when the orders come over for-- to
roll the slabs. I sat in a little office at the end of the shears, you
know, when we when they sheared it. Barrett: I've worked on the shears.
Leach: And I kept notification of all that stuff. Slab numbers Next to me,
what they call the hot seat next to one over to the office. Where this
order that they were shearing, what mill it was supposed to go to and what
date. Barrett: Yeah, yeah. Leach: Went to this mill.
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Barrett: Well, that sounds like a pretty good job compared to some of
those you could get in the mill.
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Leach: Yes. Yes, it was a good job. Of course, I got hit in 1923 when they
went on eight hours in 1923. The mills went on eight hours. Barrett: And I
forgot about that. Leach: Previous-- Previous to that, they was working 13
hours. Barrett: Yeah. Leach: So when when I was weighmaster in these plate
mills, I seen a job coming open down there and I knew where that's where
the money was at. Barrett: Yeah. Leach: That's what I was after.
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Barrett: And when you were weighmaster, were you paid? How were you paid?
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Leach: It was paid by the hour.
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Barrett: By the hour. Okay.
Leach: Yeah. Those-- those things was all by the hour. Barrett: Because on
some jobs-- Leach: You'd be on a production line. Barrett: Yeah. Leach: You
got paid tonnage.
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Barrett: Tonnage. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.
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Leach: They. They. They paid you 2,000 pounds to a ton and sold it for
2200.
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Barrett: Yeah. I bet they did.
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Leach: Yeah. Yeah, that's right. Barrett: Yeah. Yeah.
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Barrett: Well, what did fellows working in the mill prefer? I mean if you,
if you had your option would you rather be working on tonnage or would you
rather be working on an hourly rate?
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Leach: The tonnage was best. Duffy: Yeah. Leach: For the simple reason
that they've overproduced now and their incentive ain't that great.
Barrett: Yeah. Leach: Like you take a slabbing mill now if you got paid the
tonnage you got that I was getting paid for up there, you'd be making $500
a day. Barrett: Yeah.
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Barrett: Yeah.
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Leach: But towards the end, before they shut these mills down, they was
getting pretty well cut down that you wasn't able to-- Duffy: This used to
be a great gambling town at one time.
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Barrett: When was this now?
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Leach: Well I think it was in the 30s. Duffy: I think, yes. Leach: Even
during the Depression. Yeah, during the Depression. Well, if fella had
maybe 2 or 3 days coming for a payday. He didn't take that pay home. He
took it down to a gambling place to triple or quadruple it. And nine out of
ten times, he went home without anything. Barrett: Yeah. Leach: But what
what he did have in his pocket wouldn't would amount to anything anyway.
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Barrett: What what kind of gambling? Just numbers or all different
kinds--
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Duffy: Crap and cards. Leach: Craps, cards, pool hustlers.
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Barrett: And where, like in backs of saloons or something? Or where did
you go to do the gambling?
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Duffy: Oh, to the front was a pool room. And the back room. Sometimes they
say there are 2 or 3 days. Yeah. Yeah, there was quite a few pool rooms in
Homestead and-- Leach: The big one was down there at McClure Street down
there, remember that place down there? Duffy: Yeah. Leach: And you had a
big pool room, I think. Duffy: I think they had-- Leach: They had, you had
the palace, you had a pool room there where the Capital Bowl is. Now.
Duffy: You had Oss Culligan upstairs. Leach: Yeah. Upstairs. Duffy: On
Eighth Avenue. Leach: Yeah. Duffy: You had-- you had a pool room right
across the place-- Leach: Right across the street there. Down in the cellar
by Anne's flower shop. Duffy: Yeah, it was a Italian, had a pool room.
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Barrett: It sounds like a lot of them.
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Duffy: Oh, my God. You had I bet you had 20 pool rooms in between the line
of West Homestead and Munhall.
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Barrett: Yeah. And very close to the mill.
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Duffy: Mostly all up on Eighth Avenue. Yeah. Very, very few.
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Barrett: Huh. So that sounds like one thing that people did a lot when
they weren't working play pool and cards.
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Leach: In the summertime, they-- they-- they always managed to find a
place. Duffy: That Pittsburgh National Bank down there in Amity Street that
used to be the Mon Trust down there at one time. Yeah, because that's where
I was one of the directors down there. And that building alone down there,
that's where I saved my money for the buy that place out in Commonwealth
Avenue. Leach: Wasn't there a first National Bank right there at the at the
car stop on Eighth Avenue and E Street where Isaly's just went out of?
Duffy: I think that was on Anne Street. Leach: No, it moved moved from
there down to Ann Street. Duffy: Well, I know it was. Leach: You had a bank
on both sides or both corners of the Eighth and Ann Street there. But this
first National Bank was was only a small place, but it was. Duffy: Just
about where the upper Isaly's was on that. See, Isaly's used to have two
stores on eighth Avenue.
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Barrett: Yeah.
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Duffy: Well, where the one that-- in fact I think when the bank closed up
Isaly's might, might have went in business. Barrett: Yeah. Yeah. Leach:
They used to have theaters in here. Movies. They got 3 or 4 places wasn't
it. Duffy: Uh, seven. Yeah. Seven.
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Barrett: [simultaneous talking] I think there were a lot. Yeah. Duffy:
Seven.
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Duffy: Yeah. So this, uh, the owner up there. Up there, they're not doing
too good up there now, they-- Somebody got ahold of that there. And I think
the biggest part of it goes in there is colored there. Barrett: Yeah.
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Barrett: But at one time, the movies were a big thing. Duffy: --stay away
from the place.
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Leach: Uh oh, yeah. Not. Not just your movies, your your plays, traveling,
traveling plays and. Yeah. The owner up there. Duffy: Yeah, they. They call
that the Grand-- Grand Theater. Grand Theater. Yeah.
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Barrett: Huh. When did when did live, uh, theater stop in Homestead? I
mean, how long did it keep going? Can you remember?
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Leach: Well, some of your-- some of your big name bands and some of your
big name singers and Hollywood stars that is still living today, but
they're up in senior years. Duffy: Yeah. Leach: They, they've all performed
here, uh, to get-- to get that information. I'll bet you have you talk with
Daryl Martin out in-- out in Munhall. See, he was a a KDKA reporter and he
also worked for our messenger. And he also worked as a cameraman in the
Stahl and Grand Theater. There was five brothers or five brothers of them
marked, I believe two of them was, uh, become postmasters up in our
borough. And I think three of them was cameramen and. That worked up here
in the Grand and in some of the future Stahl Theater. Because Stahl had,
uh, he liked-- It was two on the lower side of Eighth Avenue and one on the
upper side between Ann and McClure Street. Do you recall their names?
Duffy: Yeah. No, I can't recall the names. Leach: But anyway, he had. He
also had three theaters between Ann Street and Amity Street. Duffy: While
the post office used to be done, Ann Street down there near Seventh and.
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Barrett: Uh, yeah.
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Duffy: Seventh and Ann. And then it changed hands quite a bit up there in
Homestead. The postmaster, uh-- Leach: If I'm not mistaken, our post office
was built 65 years ago because, uh, the bartender down in Syracuse down
there, he bought that old post office down there, Ann Street there. Down
the street there. Years later, you know, What did he do with it? There's
still some of the boxes is in there. The mail boxes in there? Well, there
was a fellow named McConigley was a postmaster up there. Duffy: Yeah, he
had a big guy. Leach: Yeah, it was a fella named before him at the post
office. I think his name was Green. Years and years ago there. Duffy:
Wasn't-- wasn't there a Carl? Leach: And, uh, Bill. Bill Cosgrove whose
name was in the paper headlines and the paper that he was going to take the
post office over, but they-- Duffy: What was that fella-- Leach: bypassed
him there. Duffy: What was that fellow's name that had had the crippled leg
that was postmaster?
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Duffy: Remember, he had to drag that leg up.
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Duffy: That book. That book that I went, Whitehurst up there. Leach:
Patterson was in there. Pete Lawler was in the Homestead post office.
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Barrett: Why was the post office such a good job? I mean, why-- why was
that the big political plum that everybody wanted?
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Duffy: Postmaster job. That's a political point. Leach: Yeah, that was a
political job. And I'll tell you, I think it's a he is appointed by the by
the president. Duffy: That post office was opened up up there in Homeville
up there. There were a bunch of old women there running it at that time
here than they was going to appoint a postmaster, see. And it was between
me and Pete Lawler. We went down, we had to get down to Pittsburgh down
there, Davey Lawrence's office, down Pittsburgh out. He was a big
politician. He was a governor.
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Barrett: Jay Lawrence. Yeah.
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Duffy: And went down there and he was talking to us down there and he--
Pete Lawler was older than me, you know, he said, How about the giving Pete
that post office job and giving you a job on a highway? He said. That's
when I got the job on a highway. Barrett: Yeah. Duffy: Remember I told you
about it. And they took the civil service examination with 50 of them, took
it for the Homewood post office up there, and that job was given out three
weeks before that examination. Three weeks before that. Barrett: Yeah.
Duffy: They told them they didn't pass. Barrett: Yeah. Duffy: These people
that took the examinations told they didn't pass. Pete Lawler got the job
and he was up there a short while and he was sent down here at the
Homestead Post Office.
00:23:25.000 --> 00:23:34.000
Barrett: Well, now, why did you and he get called in? I'm trying to get
some idea of of how the thing worked. Duffy: Yeah. Barrett: Did you-- did
you help somebody out at one time in-- Duffy: Yeah. Barrett: Election fix,
something.
00:23:34.000 --> 00:23:42.000
Duffy: Oh yeah, yeah. Leach: Now you was talking about my job.
00:23:42.000 --> 00:23:46.000
Barrett: Yeah we stopped in in 1923. You got this weighmaster job.
00:23:46.000 --> 00:24:17.000
Leach: Yes. And it was getting to be at that particular time that every
job was in sequence. Barrett: Yeah. Leach: You started at the bottom job
and worked your way up on each each unit. Barrett: Right. Leach: Like,
maybe one. One unit might have it, 5 or 6 men in it and they had them in
steps so that for you to advance, you either had to wait for one of those
men to get out or if he got a job someplace else.
00:24:17.000 --> 00:24:21.000
Barrett: And you can remember that coming in in the 20s this, this line of
progression.
00:24:21.000 --> 00:24:30.000
Leach: That's right. That come in at the time of-- When they changed the
eight hours. Barrett: Okay. Okay, good.
00:24:30.000 --> 00:24:34.000
Barrett: I didn't know when that started. Uh--
00:24:34.000 --> 00:24:51.000
Leach: So back in, uh, I stayed on those lines of sequences until 1936.
The-- at the time of the flood in 1936-- Duffy: 36. Leach: In 36, Saint
Patrick's Day floods, what they call it.
00:24:51.000 --> 00:24:55.000
Barrett: And you didn't get laid off at all during that time?
00:24:55.000 --> 00:25:24.000
Leach: Yes. In 1929, we all got laid off. Yeah, in 1929, we all got laid
off and some of the mills was shut down. So if it was a-- a group of mills
like two Open Hearths or two Slabbing Mills, shut one of them down. And all
the men that worked in there come up and you had to split the time. The
little bit of time that they was working, you split it between those two
groups.
00:25:24.000 --> 00:25:27.000
Barrett: Did they knock off shifts too, I mean, in order to, I mean,
like--
00:25:27.000 --> 00:26:04.000
Leach: Yes. Yes. Where you was working 24 hours a day, three eight hour
shifts. Now, maybe you was working one eight hour shift a day and possibly
you had eight crews. Barrett: Yeah. Leach: So if you if you got one-- one
working turn in a week's time, you was lucky even though they did work
five, eight hour turns in the week. Leach: I recall there when I first got
a job in a mill up there, it was down OH2 there. OH2 Pulling up. Pulling up
doors up there. Barrett: Yeah. Leach: Pulling up levers there. Barrett: I
know what you mean.
00:26:04.000 --> 00:26:08.000
Barrett: Yeah. Yeah. When was that?
00:26:08.000 --> 00:26:16.000
Leach: Oh, shit. I was only about 16 or 17 years of age at that time.
00:26:16.000 --> 00:26:26.000
Barrett: Yeah, so that would have been like, maybe after the First World
War.
00:26:26.000 --> 00:26:46.000
Leach: Right around that time. Around that time, I was supposed to take my
examination down West Homestead down for the army there. You know, the time
they got to me there, the war was over. Didn't even have to go. I just
turned. I just turned old enough there, you know?
00:26:46.000 --> 00:26:58.000
Barrett: So when when. When you were laid off or when either of you were
laid off, how did this work? Did you get I mean, for how long were you laid
off and did you just work part time during that period? Is that how it
worked?
00:26:58.000 --> 00:27:24.000
Leach: I myself worked part time. I got one eight hour turn, possibly
every two weeks. That's-- that was a pay period. Yeah. And by the time they
took insurance or whatever was to be withdrawn from your pay, sometimes I'd
have $0.10, sometimes I'd have $0.15. And that that went on for a period
of.
00:27:24.000 --> 00:28:17.000
Leach: So later, later on in excuse me, later on they allowed two men to
go from one department to another. Like if I knew there was work done in,
say, down in OH3 or OH4 or someplace like that or in some other department,
I would go down there. Barrett: Yeah. Leach: At the start of each turn.
Barrett: Yeah. Leach: And if they did, I would go back the next turn to
some other place. Barrett: Yeah. Leach: They could generally tell you, like
if you went down at 8:00 say this morning. I went down there and they
didn't have nothing for you. They would say, Well, so-and-so is going to
have five jobs at four at 3:00. So if you get up there, you'll get.
Barrett: Yeah. Leach: So. [unintelligible]
00:28:17.000 --> 00:28:24.000
Barrett: Were you at _____[??] at that time, Mr. Duffy? During the
Depression.
00:28:24.000 --> 00:28:29.000
Duffy: Oh I started there after I come out the highway there. 19--
Barrett: That was like maybe-- Duffy: Well, I was down there in 1913.
00:28:29.000 --> 00:29:07.000
Duffy: Not 1913, 1917. And. I worked on about a year or so, two years,
something like that there. And I went on the outside shingling homes out
there. And, uh, I heard about my dad and them were laid off up in the mill
up there. They got one one turn a month there. They were lucky. Barrett:
Yeah. Duffy: One turn away at 12 hours a day. 12 hour day. I worked when I
was pulling up in the OH2 up there, was 12 hours.
00:29:07.000 --> 00:29:20.000
Leach: But I took all kinds of jobs there myself in between '29 and
anything that come open and any of that group of mills up there, I was
there. Barrett: Yeah. Yeah. Leach: And I'd take it regardless of what it
was.
00:29:20.000 --> 00:29:39.000
Barrett: Well, I can't. It's hard, uh, for somebody that's used to all the
different, uh, government welfare plans and everything to figure out what
somebody did then at that time when they, when they were unemployed because
it doesn't from, from the little bit that I know about government, uh,
welfare policies at that time, they didn't exist really.
00:29:39.000 --> 00:29:40.000
Leach: No. No.
00:29:40.000 --> 00:29:42.000
Barrett: So how did people manage to just.
00:29:42.000 --> 00:30:42.000
Leach: Well, we had, uh, we had a little bit of a farm out there that we
had cows out there. I think we had five cows there. Sometimes they would
leave them loose there, you know, and sometimes it's free in somebody's
yard or another farmer or something like that there. And the guy had lock
them up and he charge the $2 and a half to get them back out again. And I
got a lot of beatings on account of--
