THE FLOOD!
SAINT PATRICK'S DAY
MARCH 17, 1936
Zug was born on 22 February, 1936 approximately a month before the St. Patrick's day flood and he didn't learn to swim as yet, ha ha, so Scott had to carry him quite some distance to safety and to make matters worse there were a alot of holes from the outhouses and he had to be careful not to step into one.After Zug was carried to safety, Pap was the only one left and he didn't want to leave, until Scott set a newspaper on fire (it was already dark). He called Pap to the back door, opened the door, threw the lit paper out and it quickly floated away. When Pap observed this , he immediately shouted at Scott and said "it's time to go, lets get out of here, the water is rising fast, let's go before we drown". Scott led him to safety and they went up to my Grandfather and Grandmothers's home on top of the hill.
They all remained there until the flood waters receded sufficiently for them to return home to a gigantic cleanup job. I came home for a week after the flood, I was on leave from the C.C.C. Camp, (Civilian Conservation Corps.) Peaches [Michael?] and I were stationed in New Market, Virginia at this time and later we went to a new camp in Salinas, California.
Johnny was already in the CCC's. He went in 3 years prior to the time Peaches and I were taken in. He came out of the CCC's and enlisted in the U.S. Army and was sent to the Panama Canal Zone. The Flood was very devastating all along the Conemaugh River especially in Johnstown, Pa. and in Pittsburgh. Millions of dollars in damage and much suffering. In Tintown the people were shoveling out silt, mud, and debris for two weeks, it was a back breaking job but it had to be done. New outhouses were built and the people had to erect their own sheds. After about six months everything returned to normal. There were no lives lost and no injuries, only natural destruction which was eventually replaced.
In the meantime, Pap was still out of employment and receiving welfare. This he had to accept because there were no jobs to be found. President Roosevelt commenced a public works program called the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and he removed all of the able-bodied men off the welfare rolls and put them to work so they could earn their living for them-selves and their families, and also do something constructive for the country. They worked on Public Buildings, restoring and building bridges, highways, dams, ect. . Case in point, the american legion building in Blairsville. this was built by WPA workers. Aunt Irma's Dad was one of the stone masons who provided his skill in the erection of this building.
Pap took some odd jobs that came up once in a while. He worked for Rainbow Villa on Route 22 East. He also was employed for some time by a paint factory on Morewood Ave. in Blairsville. He had to quit because of lead poisoning. Then came World War II and he was employed by Porters at his old job as a Boiler operator. He worked their up until the war was over, then he recieved employment at the Blairsville Machine Products Company and worked there until his retirement.
I can't recall to much that happened around Blairsville once the war began because I enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps in 1939 and was caught up in the war when I was stationed in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and the Japanese bombed it on December 7, 1941. From then on I made the military my professional career retiring in August 1963.
signed. The Patriarch (Opie)
[In October, 1945, Blairsville Machine Products
(BMP) was founded with the acquisition of a small machine shop in
Blairsville, Pennsylvania. A 1947 military contract to produce connecting pins
led BMP to eventually become the country's largest supplier of link connecting
pins and bushings for military tracked vehicles. In
1991, Specialty Bar Products Company acquired the Blairsville facility and
has since expanded to a second facility in Greenville, South Carolina.]
SOURCE:
200 Martha Street
Blairsville, PA 15717
724-459-7500 Commercial Transport at Specialty Bar Products Company
