Page 35 - With Karoline Siepierskit, Whitney Pier

ISSUE : Issue 36

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1984/6/1

stance, if you wanted to work in the steel plant....) No, no, they wouldn't take a woman at that time. (And certainly not the coal mines....) That's right. There's lots of men. (And was there any other kind of work that a young woman could do?) No. Just, I had no luck. I was a stranger. (And what about your language? Did you speak English then?) Oh no, nothing. I un? derstood nothing. Just the woman where I was working--she spoke Polish and every? thing. And her husband. The children didn't speak Polish, just English. (So you worked hard in this home. And you got ten dollars a month. And it was not high pay.) No, no. (But it was something.) That's it. It was good for me. I had just come here, I had nothing--I'm glad I got ten dollars. If I sat down at my sister's place, I'd have nothing. (I understand. So, you heard from your husband. He wants 100 dollars to come and be your husband.) Yes. I gave the letter to my sister, she read it. She said, "Okay, okay, I'll give you back that money"--and her husband sent it right away. I was giving her money every month to pay for the ticket. (Your sister, did she have money?) Well, her husband was working, .in the plant. She's got a car--yeah. Her husband was here just three years before taking his wife to Canada. And saved money--him work? ing, smart man. (So a person coming here from Poland, in a short time, they could make a decent living?) Yes. Oh, yes. You're working double time sometimes. Soon you send for wife and children. (And was it hard for Polish people to get work at the plant?) No. Everybody glad to get a job • And make dollars. In Poland you're working and working and you have small mon? ey. (I mean, did Polish people have an easy time to get the jobs at the plant?) I can't tell you for sure. Just, he said he liked it, he was working hard. (Did you send money for your husband to come?) Yes. He came--it must be in two weeks. He stayed with my sister, with me. And after that I caught sick with my fin? gers, I got poisoned--from the wax and dif? ferent stuff, working for this woman. Af? ter that, I quit that job. I said, "I'm sorry, my finger's sore." And my sister's husband found a job for my husband. And they hired him for the plant. He worked in the Open Hearth. (I heard sometimes people had to buy their jobs.) No, not my husband. Just the right time they wanted men for work. (Did he make a good living right a- way?) Oh, yes. He was working for 12 to 14 hours. Because he wanted to make money to pay my ticket and to pay his ticket--he'd borrowed money in Poland. He paid over 200 dollars. And then he got sick after. (Did he get sick because of his work?) Yes. He was working all the time, overtime--sometime, working day shift, he'd stay for another shift. Sometimes tired, you've got to, in your spare time, sit down, lay down on some steel--and he'd catch, here awfully cold. (In his back?) That's right. And af? ter, it went in his chest--and he was sick five years in the hospital. Five years sick--before dying. Eighteen months he stayed in the TB. hospi? tal in Sydney. Eighteen months, one piece, steady. And after, you know, sometimes you think, it'd be better if I went far away, see a doctor who could maybe help me. And he went to Halifax. Stayed three months in a hospital in Halifax. They did something .CHETICAMP CRAFT .' S''R'.f & SOUVENIR SHOP "lms / P.O. BOX 75 CARDS CHETICAMP, N.S. BOE IHO qIFTS A Neighbourhood Store in a Beautiful Village Nea's Harbour mufom fTOtfSI located Rt 255, 5 miles from Glace Bay Port Morien Enjoy your Carson Denture Clinic Central Ave., Inverness 258-2511 Ronald F. Carson Rod Voutier Licensed Denturist Licensed Denturist Sydney Denture Clinic 201 Esplanade, Sydney 539-4311 Stirling Mall Denture Clinic Stirling Mall, Glace Bay 849-2221 Gape Breton's First Custom Denture Specialists Dentures Fabricated - Rebased - Relined - Repaired • See the professionals for all your denture needs. Member: All Dental Plans Accepted Nova Scotia Denturist Society, Canadian Denturist Assoc, International Federation for Dental Prosthesis (35)

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