"Roots"

Supplementing the Larder

Blairsville in the Winter 1940

We needed to have heat for the cold winters that endured at that time, and coal was used by everybody, the majority of people in our area had coal stoves some had furnaces. Although coal was cheap and plentiful we could not buy it, the money had to go for food and clothing and some for Pap's wine and (rakiya) whiskey.Here's the way we obtained the coal to heat the house for the Winter Season.

Old Coal Parlor Stove

Peach Rakiya from Croatia

Croatian rakija[edit from wikipedia]

Rakia is the most popular spirit in Croatia.^[10] Travarica (herbal rakia) is usually served at the beginning of the meal, together with dried figs. The Croatian Adriatic coast is known for a great variety of herbal grappas, some typical for only one island or group of islands. The island Hvar is famous for grappa with the addition of Myrtus (mrtina — bitter and dark brown). Southern islands, such as Korčula, and the city of Dubrovnik are famous for grappa with anise (aniseta), and in central Dalmatia the most popular rakia is grappa with nuts (orahovica). It's usually homemade, and served with dry cookies or dried figs. In the summer, it's very typical to see huge glass jars of grappa with nuts steeping in the liquid on every balcony, because the process requires the exposure of orahovica to the sun. In the northern Adriatic — mainly Istria — rakia is typically made of honey (medica) or mistletoe (biska). Biska, which is yellow-brown and sweet, is a typical liquor of Istria.

Traditional Croatian Whiskey Flask

Across the river from Tintown was a coal mine which was operating everyday and the coal was being sold to the railroad company. The coal company had a huge tipple* that received coal from across the river that came over in large metal buckets, was dumped in the tipple and from the tipple into large railroad coal cars. We in a small way helped the man that ran the tipple and loaded the coal cars. All the coal that fell off the cars we picked up and filled potato sacks. After about 12 hours we had about 30 sacks of coal and this we took home by wagon and wheelbarrow and some we carried on our backs.

Brenizer Mine Tipple, Latrobe, Pennsylvania

We filled up the bin in the cellar and had enough coal for the whole winter. To gather this coal and be down at the tipple before anyone else we used to go down there around midnight, and wait until the tipple man came to start loading the railroad cars. the first persons there got the best spots around the coal cars to pick up the coal. Maybe Frankie remembers this time in our lives! Sometimes we had to carry the coal across the river on our backs from a different mine.It was a place called the "Riffles" and old pipe line was underneath the water from one bank to another and at times the water was very swift and you found yourself in the water and losing a sack of coal. In "Tintown" we learned to swim before we could walk. We lived only about 2 hundred yards from the river. Zug can tell you how important it became for him to know how to swim early in his life. It became important to me much later in my life also, after the battle of "Iwo Jima" was over there must have been 5 - 6 thousand Marines on this beach and some of us decided to take a swim. I for one because I loved swimming, anyway I got caught up in the undertow, the water was running fast out to sea and taking me along. My early experience in swimming came in handy and saved my life.

 To get back to the original story, after stocking up on coal, we also needed wood to burn in the stoves, for this we went out into the woods and found some dead trees. One day Pap and I went out and we found a nice big tree log lying close to the road. Pap and I proceeded to saw through the tree with a two-man cross cut saw. When we got about half way through the tree we hit a yellow jackets nest and the whole swarm attacked the both of us.We both dropped the saw and started beating the yellow jackets away from us. Pap turned and started running through the woods, flailing his arms around and hollering and swearing in Croatian and me behind him. We went straight for a small stream where we went under the water and also Pap said to start applying mud on the places where I was stung by the yellow jackets. We both looked like the elephant man. I couldn't see for three days, my whole face was swollen especially my nose, a couple got into my nostrils and stung me good. Pap was worse off than me, because he had his shirt off, and his cap. When we arrived home he took a couple of good slugs of his whiskey, gave me one and rubbed my face with the whiskey. In about three days we went back out for some more wood, only this time we proceeded with more caution and looked the dead trees over real good before we started to saw. This was the way we took care of the problem of heating our house.

*Tipple: a huge wooden structure with a large bin, and two chutes which were manually operated, the coal would dump out of buckets into the large bin, and the tipple man would hand operate the chutes letting the coal out to fall into the railroad cars, a very simple operation.

We gathered coal in this manner until we accumulated enough to fill the bin in the basement. It took us about a month to get all the coal we needed for the winter. Peaches, Chippy, and I were the coal pickers. Johnny was in the Army and Scotty had a job with Lamantia's fruit and produce company, driving and delivering to stores in and around Blairsville for 50 cents a day .....

This all happened during the 1930's. Pap worked on W.P.A. Johnny was in the Army, Scotty was driving truck, Peaches, Chippy and I were helping around the house. Bringing in the coal and wood. I may be repetitious at times as I go forward telling this story but bear with me and read along. I just hope it's not boring.

Getting a little late now and the sandman has already been here so I'll close for now and will continue the story in the next Grzan times.

Love to all,     The Patriarch

[Written by Joseph (Opie/Patriarch)Gurgon. Edited for the Grzan Times Newsletter by Peggy Myers Gurgon  April 1985. Faithfully Transcribed with minor grammar, and spelling changes by Alan Simmons. Images researched by Alan Simmons 4 November 2014 from Google images, ebay, NARA archives, and Life Magazine].