WEBVTT 00:00:01.000 --> 00:00:04.000 Marilyn Petroff: Name. 00:00:04.000 --> 00:00:10.000 Sam Bielich: Sam. Sam Bielich. S-A-M B-I-E-L-I-C-H. 00:00:10.000 --> 00:00:13.000 Petroff: And when were you born? 00:00:13.000 --> 00:00:15.000 Bielich: 1900. 00:00:15.000 --> 00:00:18.000 Petroff: 1900. Bielich: January 27th. 1900. 00:00:18.000 --> 00:00:19.000 Petroff: And where? 00:00:19.000 --> 00:00:21.000 Bielich: In Yugoslavia. 00:00:21.000 --> 00:00:24.000 Petroff: Do you remember the village or town? 00:00:24.000 --> 00:00:27.000 Bielich: Vrbossko. I just-- Petroff: Can you 00:00:27.000 --> 00:00:30.000 Petroff: Spell that? I can't. 00:00:30.000 --> 00:00:40.000 Bielich: V-R-B-O-S-S-K-O. Vrbossko. I just found that out when I was in Europe last month. 00:00:40.000 --> 00:00:41.000 Petroff: Oh, you went to Europe? 00:00:41.000 --> 00:00:48.000 Bielich: Yeah, I went to Europe, and I met some of my relatives there. And I visited Yugoslavia. 00:00:48.000 --> 00:00:59.000 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. 00:00:59.000 --> 00:01:03.000 Bielich: Yeah, but when I was five years old, I don't remember, sir. 00:01:03.000 --> 00:01:05.000 Petroff: You left there when you were five years old. 00:01:05.000 --> 00:01:06.000 Bielich: Years old. So I don't know. 00:01:06.000 --> 00:01:08.000 Petroff: You don't remember a great deal. 00:01:08.000 --> 00:01:09.000 Bielich: Don't remember anything 00:01:09.000 --> 00:01:14.000 Petroff: Oh, I see. Um, was your mother born in Yugoslavia? 00:01:14.000 --> 00:01:15.000 Bielich: Yeah, she was born. 00:01:15.000 --> 00:01:18.000 Petroff: Do you know what her maiden name was? 00:01:18.000 --> 00:01:23.000 Bielich: Uh. Kruzic. K-R-U-Z-I-C. 00:01:23.000 --> 00:01:34.000 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. 00:01:34.000 --> 00:01:37.000 Bielich: Yes. What? Did they spell it different in. 00:01:37.000 --> 00:01:39.000 Petroff: They spelled it different in Europe? 00:01:39.000 --> 00:01:50.000 Bielich: Yes. Yes. B1b. It's B-I-J-E-L-I-C. 00:01:50.000 --> 00:01:52.000 Petroff: And they just simplified the spelling. 00:01:52.000 --> 00:02:06.000 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. 00:02:06.000 --> 00:02:08.000 Petroff: And they spelled it the way it sounded to them. 00:02:08.000 --> 00:02:13.000 Bielich: Yeah, they spelled it the way it sounded to them. And that's the way. 00:02:13.000 --> 00:03:00.000 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. 00:03:00.000 --> 00:03:02.000 Petroff: Oh my. Just for a name change. 00:03:02.000 --> 00:03:24.000 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. 00:03:24.000 --> 00:04:45.000 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. 00:04:45.000 --> 00:04:48.000 Petroff: And you've been here thinking you were a citizen all these years. 00:04:48.000 --> 00:04:53.000 Bielich: That's why I voted all the time. Yes. 00:04:53.000 --> 00:04:54.000 Petroff: So you were in the service, too, you say? 00:04:54.000 --> 00:04:56.000 Bielich: Yeah, I was in the service. Petroff: That's pretty. 00:04:56.000 --> 00:04:57.000 Petroff: Good clue. 00:04:57.000 --> 00:05:11.000 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. 00:05:11.000 --> 00:05:14.000 Petroff: They took that as proof of citizenship proof. 00:05:14.000 --> 00:05:17.000 Bielich: Yeah. Otherwise. 00:05:17.000 --> 00:05:20.000 Petroff: That's strange. Now you've got it all straightened out, I guess. 00:05:20.000 --> 00:05:45.000 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. 00:05:45.000 --> 00:05:54.000 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. 00:05:54.000 --> 00:05:56.000 Bielich: Yeah. 00:05:56.000 --> 00:06:01.000 Petroff: They didn't tell me whether you were Serbian or not. I assumed that you were. Were your parents Both Serbian? 00:06:01.000 --> 00:07:14.000 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. 00:07:14.000 --> 00:07:17.000 Petroff: Is that a problem in the family? 00:07:17.000 --> 00:07:29.000 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. 00:07:29.000 --> 00:07:31.000 Petroff: Well, that's all. That's all to the good. 00:07:31.000 --> 00:07:41.000 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. 00:07:41.000 --> 00:08:00.000 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? 00:08:00.000 --> 00:08:18.000 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. 00:08:18.000 --> 00:08:19.000 Petroff: Do you read and write? 00:08:19.000 --> 00:08:24.000 Bielich: I can read and write, but not the. The. The Serbian. I don't know. 00:08:24.000 --> 00:08:27.000 Petroff: The different alphabet that the Serbians use. 00:08:27.000 --> 00:08:29.000 Bielich: I could use. Petroff: You use the Yugoslavian. 00:08:29.000 --> 00:08:36.000 Bielich: Yeah. What they call that. The kind of letter is what is this. 00:08:36.000 --> 00:08:43.000 Petroff: These the Arabic letters we use. But I don't know about the Yugoslavians. I don't know what they call them. 00:08:43.000 --> 00:08:51.000 Bielich: What were they? They said it was Latin. No, no, that was it. Yeah. What? 00:08:51.000 --> 00:08:52.000 Petroff: Well, it's the same letters. 00:08:52.000 --> 00:08:55.000 Bielich: Yeah, same letters. 00:08:55.000 --> 00:08:58.000 Petroff: Uh, what about church? Do you belong to a church now? 00:08:58.000 --> 00:09:05.000 Bielich: I belong to the. Holy Trinity Church here on Clairton Boulevard. 00:09:05.000 --> 00:09:08.000 Petroff: And what kind of church is that? 00:09:08.000 --> 00:09:12.000 Bielich: That's Greek. Petroff: Greek? Bielich: No, Serbian. 00:09:12.000 --> 00:09:16.000 Petroff: Serbian Orthodox. Are you active in church when you're here? 00:09:16.000 --> 00:09:23.000 Bielich: Yes. I helped to clear the grounds. And this is just a new church and I was active in it. 00:09:23.000 --> 00:09:27.000 Petroff: That's an Eastern Rite church like the Eastern Orthodox. 00:09:27.000 --> 00:09:33.000 Bielich: Eastern Orthodox. 00:09:33.000 --> 00:09:44.000 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? 00:09:44.000 --> 00:10:03.000 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. 00:10:03.000 --> 00:10:09.000 Petroff: What about politics? Are you active in any political party? 00:10:09.000 --> 00:10:12.000 Bielich: Well, if Carter don't win, I'm going to quit politics. 00:10:12.000 --> 00:10:21.000 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? 00:10:21.000 --> 00:10:23.000 Bielich: Very much so. 00:10:23.000 --> 00:10:25.000 Petroff: Have you been active in this campaign? 00:10:25.000 --> 00:10:36.000 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. 00:10:36.000 --> 00:10:39.000 Petroff: And the union traditionally is Democratic usually, isn't it? 00:10:39.000 --> 00:10:40.000 Bielich: Yes. 00:10:40.000 --> 00:10:42.000 Petroff: Steel Union. 00:10:42.000 --> 00:11:19.000 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. 00:11:19.000 --> 00:11:26.000 Petroff: You're not going to make any less, huh? Uh, were your parents both born in the same place that you were born? 00:11:26.000 --> 00:12:03.000 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. 00:12:03.000 --> 00:12:09.000 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. 00:12:09.000 --> 00:12:11.000 Bielich: Okay. And Vrbosska. 00:12:11.000 --> 00:12:19.000 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? 00:12:19.000 --> 00:12:20.000 Bielich: With my mother. 00:12:20.000 --> 00:12:21.000 Petroff: Oh, your mother. 00:12:21.000 --> 00:12:27.000 Bielich: My father came here in 1900, the year I was born. Oh, I see. Then five years later, I came. 00:12:27.000 --> 00:12:28.000 Petroff: She followed? 00:12:28.000 --> 00:12:29.000 Bielich: Yes. 00:12:29.000 --> 00:12:36.000 Petroff: The mother and children came later. Do you remember what port? Did you come through New York? 00:12:36.000 --> 00:12:40.000 Bielich: I come through New York. That's another thing they asked me to. What boat? I came. 00:12:40.000 --> 00:12:47.000 Petroff: Oh, yeah? What? What boat? Oh, when you're five years old, how could you remember the boat? 00:12:47.000 --> 00:13:02.000 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. 00:13:02.000 --> 00:13:13.000 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? 00:13:13.000 --> 00:13:14.000 Bielich: Yes. 00:13:14.000 --> 00:13:17.000 Petroff: He didn't have any idea of like, going back after a while. 00:13:17.000 --> 00:13:26.000 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. 00:13:26.000 --> 00:13:40.000 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? 00:13:40.000 --> 00:14:06.000 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. 00:14:06.000 --> 00:14:09.000 Petroff: Then you must have lived somewhere where there was a forest. Bielich: Yes. 00:14:09.000 --> 00:14:24.000 Bielich: My, my. Her mother's brothers were all woodsmen. Bellmakers and lumbermen. 00:14:24.000 --> 00:14:29.000 Petroff: Uh, when did your parents first come to Pittsburgh? Did they come here directly? 00:14:29.000 --> 00:14:32.000 Bielich: Yeah, directly from. 00:14:32.000 --> 00:14:35.000 Petroff: Why did they choose Pittsburgh? Do you know? 00:14:35.000 --> 00:14:48.000 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. 00:14:48.000 --> 00:14:54.000 Petroff: Now, your father in the old country, was he a woodsman, too, or was he? 00:14:54.000 --> 00:15:02.000 Bielich: No, he. He learned the shoemaker trade. He used to make shoes. Him and his brother. There was only two of them. 00:15:02.000 --> 00:15:04.000 Petroff: And is that what he did when he came here? 00:15:04.000 --> 00:15:30.000 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. 00:15:30.000 --> 00:15:43.000 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? 00:15:43.000 --> 00:16:00.000 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. 00:16:00.000 --> 00:16:02.000 Petroff: Where-- where is this neighborhood? What neighborhood is this? 00:16:02.000 --> 00:16:04.000 Bielich: That would be Southside Pittsburgh. 00:16:04.000 --> 00:16:10.000 Petroff: Southside. Oh, I know. Southside. Right. By J and L There. That's a J and L Mill. 00:16:10.000 --> 00:16:11.000 Bielich: That's a J and L Mill. Yeah. 00:16:11.000 --> 00:16:12.000 Petroff: In 29th Street. 00:16:12.000 --> 00:16:14.000 Bielich: 29th Street. 00:16:14.000 --> 00:16:17.000 Petroff: Let me see. There used to be. There was Jane Street there. 00:16:17.000 --> 00:16:18.000 Bielich: There's Jane Street. Sarah Street. 00:16:18.000 --> 00:16:19.000 Petroff: And. 00:16:19.000 --> 00:16:27.000 Bielich: Sarah J Right. Carson Street. Wharf Street, Wampum Street. McClure Street. That was all I know. 00:16:27.000 --> 00:16:41.000 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. 00:16:41.000 --> 00:17:58.000 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. 00:17:58.000 --> 00:18:08.000 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? 00:18:08.000 --> 00:18:13.000 Bielich: Oh, were mixed. Serbian, Croatian, mostly Serbian and Croatian. 00:18:13.000 --> 00:18:15.000 Petroff: And most of these people were mill workers? 00:18:15.000 --> 00:18:19.000 Bielich: Yes. Mostly mill workers. 00:18:19.000 --> 00:18:23.000 Petroff: Did you stay there long enough to go to school? Did you go to school in Southside? 00:18:23.000 --> 00:18:53.000 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. 00:18:53.000 --> 00:18:56.000 Petroff: But you did go to high school. The one on 10th Street? 00:18:56.000 --> 00:19:28.000 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. 00:19:28.000 --> 00:19:31.000 Petroff: And this is when you were like 15 or 16 years old. 00:19:31.000 --> 00:19:34.000 Bielich: 14, 14 and 12. 00:19:34.000 --> 00:19:38.000 Petroff: Oh, they hired you that early? Bielich: Yeah. 00:19:38.000 --> 00:19:40.000 Bielich: Now-- Petroff: Where was the glass house? 00:19:40.000 --> 00:19:53.000 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. 00:19:53.000 --> 00:19:55.000 Petroff: Yeah, there's a warehouse there now. 00:19:55.000 --> 00:20:47.000 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. 00:20:47.000 --> 00:20:49.000 Petroff: I think they're all gone now, aren't they? 00:20:49.000 --> 00:20:51.000 Bielich: They're all gone. They've been gone for years. 00:20:51.000 --> 00:20:53.000 Petroff: Swissvale. 00:20:53.000 --> 00:20:54.000 Bielich: I know, I know. 00:20:54.000 --> 00:21:11.000 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. 00:21:11.000 --> 00:21:43.000 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.