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From: "Bob Puckett" <>
Subject: FW: Bob Howells' Memories #3
Date: Fri, 25 Feb 2000 02:46:41 -0500


Hi again listers,
Yawn!!!!!!
Geez, 2:45am... I need to get a life!!!!!!
Sheesh!
Heres #3.
Enjoy.
Bob


-----Original Message-----
From: Jane Merrill Haver [mailto:]
Sent: Wednesday, February 16, 2000 10:47 AM
To:
Subject: Bob Howells' Memories #3

To:
From: Bob Howells <>
- ------------------------------------------------------------

PART 3:

* Stearns Station
* A Company Home
* Home, Home with a Range


STEARNS STATION

Stearns Station was a patch of 8 double block homes and one
single home for the superintendent of the colliery. It was
owned by the Susquehanna Coal Company and was located a few
hundred yards south of the #6 shaft.

In 1934, the residents were:

B. Boyle, superintendent; H. Smith, Pieseno (sp?), Cymbalysti,
Rogowicz, Kopko, Zakszewsi/Smith, McGill/Zlotowski, Kivler,
Walkewicz, Howells/Lewis, Wallace, Dinardi/Zakszewki, Campbell
and Selecky. The names with the slash indicate two families
living in the home. Many times, a daughter got married but
could not afford to go housekeeping so she brought her husband
to live with the in-laws.

During the depression, the mines did not work every day.
Paydays were small, so the ladies of the house were
interested in knowing if the mines were working on the
following day. It was always on a day-to-day basis. A
Wilkes-Barre radio station (WBAX or WBRE) would broadcast
the schedule every noon for the following day. It was
sponsored by Fred S. Petit, a local feed store owner, who
began the program with the sound of baby chicks peeping.
At the time, it was unique. The announcer then began giving
the schedule ... Alden, working ... Auchinclos, idle ...
Avondale, idle ... Loomis, working ... Susquehanna #6,
working ... Susquehanna #7, idle ... etc. There must have
been 20-30 mines in the Wyoming Valley, so it took a little
while.


A COMPANY HOME

The 1930's continued to be a period of decline for the
anthracite coal industry. My father moved our family to a
patch because he thought it would be less expensive to live.
Being a laborer, he didn't work often and had low pay as
well as no pay periods. However, many men (i.e., pump
runners, hoist engineers and fire bosses) worked seven days
a week regardless if the mine worked or not.

The house into which we moved had six rooms and no bath or
central heating. The rent was ten dollars a month and the
electricity, which was supplied by the company, was two
dollars a month. However, there were restrictions. No
appliances, especially those that heated, were permitted.
The double block (duplex) homes were painted light colors
(i.e., light yellow, light green or light blue). They
were in a row with three going up the hill and the rest
going across a level at the top. Our house was the third
one up and gave us a good view of the colliery. The front
porch was a great place to sit on a rainy day and watch the
mine at work.

A wire fence extended the length of the front of the
property and along the sides. A board fence enclosed the
rear. There were no sidewalks or paved roads. The "street"
in front of our house had deep ruts and couldn't be
traveled by a vehicle. The space at the top of the hill
afforded parking for visitors to the mine or patch. Inside
the yard, there were large plank boardwalks leading to the
front porch, side/rear porch and out to the coal shanty at
the rear of the property.

About twenty feet from the houses, there was a row of
double block outhouses which were painted to match the main
dwelling. However, the toilets had running water. When the
seat was depressed, the water carried the waste down to a
black creek which carried it to the Susquehanna River. (An
environmental nightmare.) There were a few homes that had
baths. They were rented to the men who had seven day per
week jobs. At their own expense and with permission from
the company, the renters installed the baths themselves.

Each home had a backyard large enough to grow a variety of
vegetables. Everyone planted tomatoes, potatoes, beans and
other vegetables. Most everyone home canned many of the
items. By the time December came round, the shelves in
our cellar were filled with all sorts of pickles, tomatoes,
beans, chili sauce and a variety of jams and jellies. Beyond
the back fence, was a row of coops where people raised
chickens, ducks, geese or turkeys. One of my chores was to
see that the stock was fed and watered.

The year we raised ducks, our neighbor, Mrs. "Pete", asked
to kill the duck so she could have the blood to make
czarnina (sp?) which is blood soup. When we offered her
the duck, she insisted that she only wanted the blood, but
she had to kill it. Out of curiosity, I watched. It was
the worst thing I could have done. I couldn't stand to see
my "pets" killed in that manner. The next year, I asked my
dad not to raise ducks and he agreed.

The houses were built long before the electric lights were
installed. Each room had the bare bulb hanging from the
center of the room. There were no wall switches. The bulb
was screwed into a socket that had a brass chain which one
pulled to turn the light off or on. It was very frustrating
entering a dark room and searching for that chain. The
solution was to tie a string to the chain and fasten it to
the door jamb. Or, in the bedroom, we would tie one end of
the string to the chain and the other end to the head of the
bed. There was an outlet in the front room and one in the
middle room but only on the first floor. The outlets were
in the floor and not in the wall as they are today. Since
there was no bathroom, we were required to use the round
galvanized tub for bathing. That's why I went down to the
colliery for a shower as I stated in an earlier message.


HOME, HOME WITH A RANGE

Our company house in the 30's was heated by a coal heater in
the middle downstairs room and a coal range in the kitchen.
It was one of my chores to see that the ashes were taken out
and enough coal was brought in to last the next day. Our
heater was a large, nickel-plated, decorative stove with
doors on the sides and double doors on the front. The doors
had isinglass windows through which one could see the glowing
coals. It helped give a warm, cozy atmosphere to the room.

The kitchen range was a real "work horse." It was the
domain of the woman of the house. All the cooking and
baking was done in or on it, and it heated the water for
our use. The fire box had three sides of fire brick and
one side held a water back. The water back was connected
to a tank at the rear of the stove and the tank connected
to the sink and water supply. Convection circulated the
water and the heated water was stored in the tank. There
was always a kettle on the stove containing heated water
just in case a friend or neighbor dropped in for a cup of
tea. When that happened, Mom would put some loose tea in
the teapot, put some boiling water over it and when the tea
was ready, poured the tea through a tea strainer into a cup.
Breakfast toast was made over the glowing coals. We had a
special rack into which we put the slice of homemade bread
and, after removing a lid, placed it on the stove over the
coal. When smoke started to rise, we would flip it over
and toast the other side. We had a griddle which was large
enough to cover the two lids directly over the firebox. Mom
used the griddle for making pancakes, Welsh cookies and
froice (sp?). Froice was a pancake made from extra thin
batter and, after it was done, was rolled up. Sometimes
they were plain, or had cinnamon or sugar inside. Other
times, they had very thin, small pieces of apple. Whichever
way they were made, they were delicious and just the thing
to eat when I got home from school.

Washday was what the name implied. It usually took most of
the day. The wringer washer was put in the middle of the
kitchen and a chair with a galvanized tub to hold the rinse
water was put alongside. Mom would take the wet clothes out
of the washer, put them through the wringer, put them into
the rinse water and back through the wringer. They were
then put into a basket and taken outside to be hung on the
clothesline. When they were dry, Mom would bring them in
and, one at a time, would place them on the table, sprinkle
the garment with drops of water and roll them up in a tight
roll. It was very difficult to get wrinkles out of dry
clothing. When she ironed, she would place the ironing board
near the stove. She had three or four irons with which to
iron. The irons had holes in the top to hold a common handle
which fit all. She would put the irons on the stove and when
they were hot enough, she would proceed to iron. When the
iron she was using got cool, she would put it back on the
stove, release the handle and put it on another iron. She
did this until the ironing was finished.

Even in those days, the ladies were concerned about their
appearance. Mom had two irons which she used to "fix" her
hair. (Her words, not mine.) One was a curling iron and
the other was a waving iron. They both worked like a large
pair of scissors. When she was about to do the girls hair
or her own, she would put the irons in the hot coals to get
warm. When she thought they were hot enough, she'd test them
on a newspaper. If they scorched the paper, they were too hot.
In any case, if one smelled burnt hair, she was in trouble! :-)

During the winter months, we always had hot bricks in the
oven. They were not the small bricks used in building houses
but the large, yellow bricks used for paving the roads.
Each night before bedtime, Mom would take out a brick, wrap
it in cloth, take it upstairs and put it under the covers at
the foot of the bed. It sure was nice crawling into a warm
bed and putting cold feet on a warm brick. In the morning,
when she made the bed, she'd return the brick to the oven to
heat up for bedtime.

I think it is safe to say that most of us have suffered
through a spell of diarrhea leaving us with a sore posterior.
Mom had a remedy for the discomfort! She took a lid from the
stove, wrapped it in newspaper and cloth, put it on a chair
and ordered us to sit on it. Believe me, it was very
sooooothing.

Coming in from sleigh riding or walking in the snow always
left me with cold, wet feet. Putting my "high tops" behind
the stove to dry, I'd open the oven door and put a chair in
front of it. It was great to sit in the chair with my feet
on the little shelf below the oven and read a Big Little Book.
(What! You never heard of a Big Little Book?!) "High tops"
were shoes usually worn by kids in the country. I can't
recall seeing many city kids wearing them. They came up over
the calf of the leg to help keep your legs dry when walking
through snow. At least, that's what I told my parents so I
could get a pair. They had a little pocket on the side of
the right boot which held a small penknife. Can you imagine
what would happen if a kid wore shoes with a knife in a
pocket, today? And yet, we did it all the time in our
one room schoolhouse.

"Backward, O backward
O time in your flight
Make me a child again
just for tonight."

-- Elizabeth Akers Allen


(And you thought it was a plain old stove.)


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