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Bielich, S., undated, tape 1, side 1

WEBVTT

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Marilyn Petroff:  Name.

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Sam Bielich:  Sam. Sam Bielich. S-A-M B-I-E-L-I-C-H.

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Petroff:  And when were you born?

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Bielich:  1900.

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Petroff:  1900.
Bielich:  January 27th. 1900.

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Petroff:  And where?

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Bielich:  In Yugoslavia.

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Petroff:  Do you remember the village or town?

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Bielich:  Vrbossko. I just-- Petroff: Can you

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Petroff:  Spell that? I can't.

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Bielich:  V-R-B-O-S-S-K-O. Vrbossko. I just found that out when I was in
Europe last month.

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Petroff:  Oh, you went to Europe?

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Bielich:  Yeah, I went to Europe, and I met some of my relatives there. And
I visited Yugoslavia.

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Petroff:  Yeah, In a little while after we get this basic stuff, we'll talk
about that trip because I'd like to hear about how it was, you know, now
compared to when you were younger.

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Bielich:  Yeah, but when I was five years old, I don't remember, sir.

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Petroff:  You left there when you were five years old.

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Bielich:  Years old. So I don't know.

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Petroff:  You don't remember a great deal.

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Bielich:  Don't remember anything

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Petroff:  Oh, I see. Um, was your mother born in Yugoslavia?

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Bielich:  Yeah, she was born.

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Petroff:  Do you know what her maiden name was?

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Bielich:  Uh. Kruzic. K-R-U-Z-I-C.

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Petroff:  K-R-U-C-I-C. Bielich: Z-I-C. Petroff: Z-I-C. Now, with your. Your
father's name and your mother's, have there been any changes? Your father's
name was Bielich.

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Bielich:  Yes. What? Did they spell it different in.

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Petroff:  They spelled it different in Europe?

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Bielich:  Yes. Yes. B1b. It's B-I-J-E-L-I-C.

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Petroff:  And they just simplified the spelling.

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Bielich:  Well, what happened there. When I started to school here, the
teachers didn't know how to spell polish, so they spelt it the way they
dropped it dropped the J and B-I-E-L-I-C-H.

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Petroff:  And they spelled it the way it sounded to them.

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Bielich:  Yeah, they spelled it the way it sounded to them. And that's the
way.

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Petroff:  That's the way it came out.
Bielich:  That's the way it come on out. That's the way he gave me a lot of
trouble, too, when I was asked when I was. Trying to get a passport. And my
father had my name spelled that way and I was spelling it the other way.
Bielich. And they told me that I would get have to get my own papers or I'd
have trouble. I was citizen under the the law at that time. Anybody under
21 ought to be automatically became a citizen of this country because my
name was spelt different than the way I spelled it. They advised me to go
and get my papers and I waited 11 months before.

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Petroff:  Oh my. Just for a name change.

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Bielich:  11 months. 11 months. They they wanted to know my school record.
I got that. And that was all messed up. They wanted, of all things they
wanted to know. I get an affidavit of someone who has witnessed my father
and mother's wedding in Europe and my.

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Petroff:  That's not easy.
Bielich:  And my dad, he died in 1948 or something like that. He was 78
years old. So I couldn't get none of that stuff. I couldn't get a baptismal
certificate. I had to get an affidavit of somebody who knew my father and
talked to him. And my was my daughter in law's mother knew my father. And
finally I turned around and got my papers. I had to bring my son. That was
good. This is in Concord, New Hampshire. I had to bring my son over to
prove that I was his father or he had to prove that I'm his father. Yeah,
he had to. They asked him all the questions. They almost the exact
questions they asked me and he was able to answer correctly. Then after he
answered all the questions, then he says, Now you'll have to take a rose
and. The first question. The first question asked me, do you give up your
citizenship papers in Yugoslavia? I almost dropped all these voted, in the
service and all that. Do you give up. That's what I found out it was
Yugoslav.

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Petroff:  And you've been here thinking you were a citizen all these
years.

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Bielich:  That's why I voted all the time. Yes.

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Petroff:  So you were in the service, too, you say?

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Bielich:  Yeah, I was in the service. Petroff: That's pretty.

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Petroff:  Good clue.

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Bielich:  Yeah, but that didn't mean anything. It didn't. They won't
accept. Didn't accept my discharge here. If I was a an officer that hadn't
been that had accepted it.

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Petroff:  They took that as proof of citizenship proof.

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Bielich:  Yeah. Otherwise.

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Petroff:  That's strange. Now you've got it all straightened out, I guess.

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Bielich:  Yeah. I got my own papers now, and I became a citizen. And a
right after that I came here and my son asked me. Here, What are you
drinking, Dad? I said, Give me a scotch and soda. So he used a room full of
people, he said. He said, Holy smokes, he's just a citizen for two days and
you're asking for scotch and soda.

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Petroff:  You're really a full fledged citizen now. Yeah, you really are.
What ethnic group do you belong to, Mr. Bilic? What ethnic group are you?
Bielich: Serbian.

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Bielich:  Yeah.

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Petroff:  They didn't tell me whether you were Serbian or not. I assumed
that you were. Were your parents Both Serbian?

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Bielich:  No. My mother was Croatian. My father was Serbian. And it's kind
of mixed up. And all the boys and I became Orthodox Greek Orthodox and my
father's side. And the girls went on my mother's side. Petroff: Oh, I see.
Bielich: And there again, they're back in the old country. Tells me that.
They couldn't get married unless my children, all our children became
Catholic. Well, that particular area at time, the Romanian king married a
Catholic princess. And the pope said that all our boys could be orthodox
and the girls could be Catholic. So he said, I'm not going to marry unless
I get the same privilege as the king. He says he's not any better than me.
So they told him in Europe they could go ahead and do that. And that's how
we were. All my nieces and nephews. Yeah, I have a lot of nieces and
nephews that are Catholics, and I have nieces and nephews who served Greek
Orthodox.

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Petroff:  Is that a problem in the family?

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Bielich:  No, it hasn't been as far as we liked it at home because we had
two Christmases to Easters. Petroff: That's good. Bielich: We had
everything doubled.

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Petroff:  Well, that's all. That's all to the good.

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Bielich:  And then they carry on the same thing. My boys still carry on.
Celebrate the 25th and also celebrate January 7th, what we call Russian
Christmas.

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Petroff:  Yeah, yeah, we do that to my mother in law is Greek Orthodox or
was Greek Orthodox. And she had it two weeks or so after our Christmas, you
know, So we always had to. That's really nice. That's not bad to have two
of those. Um, what languages do you speak and understand besides English?

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Bielich:  I understand Yugoslav and I speak. If I stayed another month, I'd
have been a native. But I got along all right, I. Do you read? We used to
speak it at home. And then my father mother passed away. Then we could use
it.

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Petroff:  Do you read and write?

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Bielich:  I can read and write, but not the. The. The Serbian. I don't
know.

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Petroff:  The different alphabet that the Serbians use.

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Bielich:  I could use.
Petroff:  You use the Yugoslavian.

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Bielich:  Yeah. What they call that. The kind of letter is what is this.

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Petroff:  These the Arabic letters we use. But I don't know about the
Yugoslavians. I don't know what they call them.

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Bielich:  What were they? They said it was Latin. No, no, that was it.
Yeah. What?

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Petroff:  Well, it's the same letters.

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Bielich:  Yeah, same letters.

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Petroff:  Uh, what about church? Do you belong to a church now?

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Bielich:  I belong to the. Holy Trinity Church here on Clairton Boulevard.

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Petroff:  And what kind of church is that?

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Bielich:  That's Greek. Petroff: Greek? Bielich: No, Serbian.

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Petroff:  Serbian Orthodox. Are you active in church when you're here?

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Bielich:  Yes. I helped to clear the grounds. And this is just a new church
and I was active in it.

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Petroff:  That's an Eastern Rite church like the Eastern Orthodox.

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Bielich:  Eastern Orthodox.

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Petroff:  When you traveled, you said you go to New Hampshire or where your
son is in New England somewhere. Do they have that type of church in that
area?

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Bielich:  Yeah, I have the Greeks have the Greeks have an Eastern Orthodox
Church in Manchester. It's not too far away from my son lives. But my son
and his wife and I go to a Baptist church, which is closer to their home.

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Petroff:  What about politics? Are you active in any political party?

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Bielich:  Well, if Carter don't win, I'm going to quit politics.

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Petroff:  You're going to quit, I assume then you're a Democrat. Bielich:
Yeah. Petroff: Are you active in politics? Do you help campaign or do
anything like that?

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Bielich:  Very much so.

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Petroff:  Have you been active in this campaign?

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Bielich:  Well, I haven't so far. I'm waiting to get orders from my son
here. Petroff: Oh, I see. Bielich: He'll he'll put me to work with the
union. When I was with the union, I was very active.

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Petroff:  And the union traditionally is Democratic usually, isn't it?

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Bielich:  Yes.

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Petroff:  Steel Union.

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Bielich:  We-- Well during the Depression, and here males were down over
his work. And I talked with a group of men, worked in a mill. I said, the
only thing we can do is have a union in a mill and get into politics.
Because if we want a better our conditions and all that and that moment,
this one man was a foreman down the mill. He said, Well, don't talk that
way. Sammy says, You'll get fired. I said, What difference is it? I'm not
working in here.

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Petroff:  You're not going to make any less, huh? Uh, were your parents
both born in the same place that you were born?

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Bielich:  No, they weren't. One. Or close by the two different towns. I
think-- I think my mother was born in Kahlbutz and he was born in another
little town. I don't know exactly where they call it Priyacitza. I don't
know how they can spell it. Prijacica. I don't know either.
P-R-I-J-A-C-I-C-A. . Somewhere close enough. Petroff: That's close.

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Petroff:  Enough. How about where your father was born? Can you try to
spell that for me? That's right. Oh, that's your father's.

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Bielich:  Okay. And Vrbosska.

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Petroff:  And your mother was born in the same place. I see. Then you came
to the United States, but your parents didn't. Or did they?

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Bielich:  With my mother.

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Petroff:  Oh, your mother.

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Bielich:  My father came here in 1900, the year I was born. Oh, I see. Then
five years later, I came.

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Petroff:  She followed?

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Bielich:  Yes.

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Petroff:  The mother and children came later. Do you remember what port?
Did you come through New York?

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Bielich:  I come through New York. That's another thing they asked me to.
What boat? I came.

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Petroff:  Oh, yeah? What? What boat? Oh, when you're five years old, how
could you remember the boat?

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Bielich:  Then I try to find out. When my father got his papers, I went
down town, and when he got his papers, I thought, well, he's. He should
know what boat he he came on. Maybe I came on the same one. He didn't know
either.

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Petroff:  He didn't know. That's a hard thing to remember after all those
years. When your parents came here. Now, when your father came here
initially, did he intend to stay in the United States?

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Bielich:  Yes.

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Petroff:  He didn't have any idea of like, going back after a while.

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Bielich:  No, he didn't have no idea. He came here and he found out that
the homes had wooden floors. That was better than the dirt floor.

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Petroff:  That was an improvement. Yeah, I know that. You don't remember
much about the old country since you were only five years old. Do you
remember anything about it? About the differences?

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Bielich:  Only thing I remember that I used to meet my uncles, my mother's
brother, who would be coming in from the forest, you know. And they had
those wagons where they used to haul logs on and we would meet them up and
we'd sit in on the center rod and ride home. And so anything I can
remember.

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Petroff:  Then you must have lived somewhere where there was a forest.
Bielich: Yes.

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Bielich:  My, my. Her mother's brothers were all woodsmen. Bellmakers and
lumbermen.

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Petroff:  Uh, when did your parents first come to Pittsburgh? Did they come
here directly?

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Bielich:  Yeah, directly from.

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Petroff:  Why did they choose Pittsburgh? Do you know?

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Bielich:  Because I had some relatives here in France. Petroff: Oh, I see.
Bielich: I had some friends that came here and they told them to come here.
There would be a job for them. And that's the reason.

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Petroff:  Now, your father in the old country, was he a woodsman, too, or
was he?

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Bielich:  No, he. He learned the shoemaker trade. He used to make shoes.
Him and his brother. There was only two of them.

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Petroff:  And is that what he did when he came here?

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Bielich:  When he came here, he didn't do that. He did that on his side. He
worked in the steel mills. And then there were still some people from the
old country who wanted to wear the same kind of shoes that they wore in the
old country that was Austria-Hungary at that time. And he was able to go
ahead and measure their foot and get a mold and make the shoe for them.

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Petroff:  Like they had had in the old country. Bielich: Yeah. Petroff: Do
you remember the first neighborhood you lived in when you came here?
Bielich: Yes. Petroff: Where did you live?

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Bielich:  Let's see what it was. 2829 Street. All right. Alongside of the
mill, right across the street from the steel mill. 29th. I don't know the
name of the little alley there.

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Petroff:  Where-- where is this neighborhood? What neighborhood is this?

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Bielich:  That would be Southside Pittsburgh.

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Petroff:  Southside. Oh, I know. Southside. Right. By J and L There. That's
a J and L Mill.

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Bielich:  That's a J and L Mill. Yeah.

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Petroff:  In 29th Street.

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Bielich:  29th Street.

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Petroff:  Let me see. There used to be. There was Jane Street there.

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Bielich:  There's Jane Street. Sarah Street.

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Petroff:  And.

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Bielich:  Sarah J Right. Carson Street. Wharf Street, Wampum Street.
McClure Street. That was all I know.

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Petroff:  That neighborhood-- My husband lived in that neighborhood on Jane
Street near 29th and 30th Street at one time. So I know that neighborhood.
It's still there, too. Those old row houses are still there that were
there.

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Bielich:  Yeah, well, the houses that I. We first lived in there. We first
come from the old country we lived in. This little alley in the house was
right adjacent to the firehouse. And the one, the 12:00 whistle blow, the
steam and the water from that whistle would fall down on our porch. That's
how close we were to that mill. And that was the-- the-- the-- the
firehouse was there and also the boiler, boiler house that made the steam
for the engines in there. This was just a short, short street that led
right into the mill. And from there we moved to. Oh 3030 First street
behind the car barn on. Wall Street. They changed their name from Wall
Street to Wampum. Or I don't know what it is. I think it was Wampum Street
and they changed it to Wall Street. From there, we moved to Carson Street.
And I think we ended up on a hill on Arlington Avenue.

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Petroff:  Up on the hill in that neighborhood, when you were a child where
most of the people in that neighborhood, Serbians. Or were they mixed?

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Bielich:  Oh, were mixed. Serbian, Croatian, mostly Serbian and Croatian.

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Petroff:  And most of these people were mill workers?

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Bielich:  Yes. Mostly mill workers.

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Petroff:  Did you stay there long enough to go to school? Did you go to
school in Southside?

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Bielich:  Yes, I went to school in Southside and I went to school at
Southside and I wanted to go to high school like that. Believed in in
education. And I would go to high school. And because I lived on the wrong
side of the tracks, I got called all kind of names and because of my name
and all that. So all the way from 30th Street to 10th Street, I had to
fight my way.

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Petroff:  But you did go to high school. The one on 10th Street?

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Bielich:  Yeah, just one semester, because I had to either get beat up or
I'd beat somebody up and my clothes would be torn, and I'd come home and
I'd get beat. Get beat up again. So I decided to work in the Glasshouse and
I got a job and I got a job in the Glasshouse. I worked there for a while
and I worked in a factory, Michael and St Paul factory where most of the
young Croatians and servants, they all worked there at one time or other.

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Petroff:  And this is when you were like 15 or 16 years old.

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Bielich:  14, 14 and 12.

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Petroff:  Oh, they hired you that early? Bielich: Yeah.

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Bielich:  Now-- Petroff: Where was the glass house?

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Petroff:  I don't think.
Bielich:  The glass house was. Well, I was at one spot just a few days ago.
They had a glass out of 10th Street right in back of the. And high school
at 10th Street.

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Petroff:  Yeah, there's a warehouse there now.

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Bielich:  Yeah, there? Yeah. There's a glass house. There was one at 18th
Street. The one of the finest glasses in this country, in fact. Most of it
was sent out of the country. It's real fine class. I just forget the
people's name around it. Before us Glass company brought it over. Then at
26th Street was a warehouses steel warehouse. At 2060 was a bottle house
with a mate blown bottles for beer in that it was 18th Street. 10th Street.
I don't know if there was another one or not. I think there were three
class sizes in the bottleworks.

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Petroff:  I think they're all gone now, aren't they?

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Bielich:  They're all gone. They've been gone for years.

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Petroff:  Swissvale.

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Bielich:  I know, I know.

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Petroff:  It's not still operating. I think they have some kind of activity
in one floor. But there is an old glass house still over there and they do
make some kind of glass products. But it's all the windows are broken. It
looks like it's abandoned. They're just doing a little bit of work in one
part of it. Yeah.

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Bielich:  The only one I know, the brother of the one here at 18th Street.
He had a factory up until a few years ago at Mont Pleasant Price. His name
was Bryce. Bryce. Bryce Factory. And this was Bryce factory in Mount
Pleasant that Lennox bought out. And they bought the place out and they
built themselves a new factory in Mount Pleasant. And we're making some
real fine glasses.

00:21:43.000 --> 00:21:45.000
Petroff:  They make fine China there, too.

00:21:45.000 --> 00:21:51.000
Bielich:  Yeah. China's beautiful. Well, I don't know if you ever up
there.

00:21:51.000 --> 00:21:55.000
Petroff:  No, I've read about it, though. I've never. I've been to Mount
Pleasant, but I've never been to the factory.

00:21:55.000 --> 00:22:06.000
Bielich:  You can go to the factory and see some of the stuff they make. In
fact, you can buy some good seconds on glass. You can't tell the
difference, right?

00:22:06.000 --> 00:22:19.000
Petroff:  That would be a good bargain. Um, when you were a child, did
anyone else live in the household with you besides your mother and father
and sisters and brothers? You didn't have boarders or relatives?

00:22:19.000 --> 00:22:32.000
Bielich:  Well, at one time I had my uncle. Stay with us. That's about all
we did. We did have relatives as boarders and only stayed for a short
while.

00:22:32.000 --> 00:22:33.000
Petroff:  Just until they got started.

00:22:33.000 --> 00:22:44.000
Bielich:  Until they find out something else, then they. Then they left or
went different parts of the country.

00:22:44.000 --> 00:22:48.000
Petroff:  I think that's how most people started in this country. Bielich:
Yeah. Petroff: And stay with someone.

00:22:48.000 --> 00:22:50.000
Bielich:  Stay with someone they knew.

00:22:50.000 --> 00:22:56.000
Petroff:  Then what do you remember about your grandparents? Do you
remember them at all?

00:22:56.000 --> 00:23:30.000
Bielich:  I don't. I don't remember. None of my grandparents. My father's
father died when he was four years old, so they were left orphans, him and
his brother. One was four when he was three. And this is the children I saw
in Europe now oh one died about seven months ago. My uncle's boy and the
other one is living. He's 73 years old.

00:23:30.000 --> 00:23:53.000
Petroff:  Oh, and you got to see him.
Bielich:  I was able to see him. And my daughter two years ago saw the one
that died, but he didn't. She didn't see the one I saw because he was on a
vacation. When she told me that he was on vacation, I said, she it's funny.
It's a communist country, this and that. They still have time to go on
vacation.

00:23:53.000 --> 00:24:00.000
Petroff:  Oh, maybe it's not as bad as we thought. How many brothers and
sisters did you have?

00:24:00.000 --> 00:24:06.000
Bielich:  I had two brothers. I had two sisters.

00:24:06.000 --> 00:24:07.000
Petroff:  Are they still living?

00:24:07.000 --> 00:24:22.000
Bielich:  No, they're all gone. All of them are gone. All died. Petroff:
And you're the last one. Bielich: Sister and brother died a little over a
year ago. I'm the only one left out of out of the five children, out of the
five children.

00:24:22.000 --> 00:24:25.000
Petroff:  Did they all settle in the Pittsburgh area?

00:24:25.000 --> 00:24:42.000
Bielich:  Yes. Starting my one younger brother. He got transferred to Texas
and finally came back. And he. He died here. My sisters. Both sisters died
here in Pittsburgh.

00:24:42.000 --> 00:24:44.000
Petroff:  Basically, they stayed in the Pittsburgh area.

00:24:44.000 --> 00:24:47.000
Bielich:  They stayed in the Pittsburgh area.

00:24:47.000 --> 00:24:55.000
Petroff:  Um, you told me that you had lost your wife. Did you have
children? I know you have a son here. How many children did you have?

00:24:55.000 --> 00:24:57.000
Bielich:  I had two boys and one girl.

00:24:57.000 --> 00:24:58.000
Petroff:  Two boys and a girl. Are they still living?

00:24:58.000 --> 00:24:59.000
Bielich:  They're living.

00:24:59.000 --> 00:25:06.000
Petroff:  How old are they? You don't know.

00:25:06.000 --> 00:25:15.000
Bielich:  The youngest one is 41 and my girl is around 43. And this boy
here is about 45. That's close enough.

00:25:15.000 --> 00:25:21.000
Petroff:  That's close enough. Um, do you belong to any fraternal
organizations?

00:25:21.000 --> 00:25:42.000
Bielich:  No, I. I did at one time, but I belonged to the Croatian
Fraternal Union for some reason or other. The secretary. Failed to notify
me, and I always had to change secretaries. And I happened to be working in
Ohio.

00:25:42.000 --> 00:25:43.000
Petroff:  And you just let it drop?

00:25:43.000 --> 00:25:56.000
Bielich:  I didn't let it drop, but he didn't notify me. But when they
notified me that I'd always I would always pay up. And I was a member of
that for, oh, about 23 years.

00:25:56.000 --> 00:26:06.000
Petroff:  Do your children any of them belong to the CFU? Bielich: No.
Petroff: Do you know why not? Or they just haven't been interested in it?

00:26:06.000 --> 00:26:10.000
Bielich:  They're just not interested. They weren't born in the old
country.

00:26:10.000 --> 00:26:25.000
Petroff:  Yeah, they do change, don't they? Um, I always talk a little bit
about your education. You told me that you went one term to high school.
Bielich: Yeah. Petroff: And is that all the education? Do you have other
special training?

00:26:25.000 --> 00:26:52.000
Bielich:  Did you know, other special training? Other than what I had? I
had soul, special training and collective bargaining at Penn State
University. They still carry that on Grievance committeeman offices of
local unions. Every summer they they want to they can go to school for, I
think, three weeks or something like that.

00:26:52.000 --> 00:26:57.000
Petroff:  When was this that you went? When did you go to Penn State for
this training?

00:26:57.000 --> 00:27:39.000
Bielich:  That was some time after the union was organized. The contract,
the contracts were getting bigger all the time and you had to do more
studying. So they thought that would be somewhere in the. 50, 54, 55. So
before that, let's see, I left here and 46, 48 that was around the round
40. 46, 40 Oh, right after the war then? Yeah, right after the war. They
would have summer classes there. Crash programs.

00:27:39.000 --> 00:27:47.000
Petroff:  And was your job in the glass house? Was that your very first
job? Was that the first?

00:27:47.000 --> 00:27:52.000
Bielich:  Yeah, the first time I ever. You know, when I worked. Yeah. I
went in the glass.

00:27:52.000 --> 00:27:58.000
Petroff:  And you were, what, 12 or so? Bielich: What? Petroff: How old
were you?

00:27:58.000 --> 00:28:07.000
Bielich:  Yeah, I lied. I was 13 years old. Petroff: 13? Uh huh.

00:28:07.000 --> 00:28:09.000
Petroff:  Um.

00:28:09.000 --> 00:28:15.000
Bielich:  I was still going to school and I worked at night. Petroff: Oh.

00:28:15.000 --> 00:28:19.000
Petroff:  Do you remember what they paid? I couldn't have been much.

00:28:19.000 --> 00:28:21.000
Bielich:  About about $4 a week.

00:28:21.000 --> 00:28:25.000
Petroff:  Oh, this was, say, 1912, 1913, somewhere in there, wasn't it?

00:28:25.000 --> 00:28:27.000
Bielich:  Yeah, that's right.

00:28:27.000 --> 00:28:42.000
Petroff:  When did you first earn enough or have a good enough job to
support yourself? When? Yeah. Well, when you had, say, a man's job.

00:28:42.000 --> 00:28:51.000
Bielich:  Oh, I had.

00:28:51.000 --> 00:28:55.000
Bielich:  19.

00:28:55.000 --> 00:28:59.000
Bielich:  1917. 1916, 16.

00:28:59.000 --> 00:29:02.000
Petroff:  You were still very young at that time?

00:29:02.000 --> 00:29:09.000
Bielich:  Yeah, I was 16 years old. And I-- when I worked in the steel mill
in Buffalo when I was out on my own.

00:29:09.000 --> 00:29:11.000
Petroff:  You went to Buffalo, New York?

00:29:11.000 --> 00:29:13.000
Bielich:  I ran away from home.

00:29:13.000 --> 00:29:15.000
Petroff:  Oh, and you went to Buffalo?

00:29:15.000 --> 00:29:21.000
Bielich:  I went to Buffalo and I got a job in a steel mill. So I had to
pay board and take care of myself.

00:29:21.000 --> 00:29:24.000
Petroff:  Truly on your own. At about 16.

00:29:24.000 --> 00:29:32.000
Bielich:  16. And my dad, he. Turn around and send my-- I think my brother
in law, send him up to bring me back home.

00:29:32.000 --> 00:29:33.000
Petroff:  And did he?

00:29:33.000 --> 00:29:52.000
Bielich:  He did. I come back home and the boy I went out with I think he
joined the army after he went-- Petroff: right before the war. Yeah.
Bielich: So he was in the service in World War One. He was a little older
and I was.

00:29:52.000 --> 00:30:05.000
Petroff:  That was very unusual to run away from home at that time, wasn't
it? Bielich: Yeah. Petroff: I mean, I know we hear a lot of that today.
Okay. But did many young people run away from home at that time?

00:30:05.000 --> 00:30:09.000
Bielich:  No. They'd get on the freight and just get going. Petroff: Oh.

00:30:09.000 --> 00:30:13.000
Petroff:  Why do you think they did that?

00:30:13.000 --> 00:31:13.000
Bielich:  Well, I, I think they did it for this reason that at that time
the people had a lot of their children there and you was big and you wanted
something. You felt you were in a row. That song you want to get away free.