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History
Railroad
Lois
Charlie
Art
Lois Romanak
Lois Romanak, a local Renovo woman, shares her experience working in the railroad shops during WWII.
I worked in the shops from 1943-1946 January both years. When I hired out, I hired out in one building and this big Bertha machine came in and we had to clean. It had a conveyor belt, that took the belt out, and we had to clean the tracks. It was a tough job because you had to use a hammer and chisel; it was so impacted with that dirt and grime. So, then I got a job up in the little machine shop, and that was much cleaner.
"We were called the coal dust twins because it was so dirty."
"But we worked that one summer from Memorial Day to Labor Day without a day off—worked seven days a week. And this was taken on a Sunday. I took time off to go over town and buy the Sunday paper. And I got it for several other people, and they were in this guy was paying me for getting his paper."
"It was a job. My mother, I, and my brother and my sister—my dad died about two months after I hired out—saw that we were ok....So that job was necessary for me. I don’t know, I was kind of a different type of person. A lot of the women, hung out in the ladies room. I never, I was there for three years, I never once was inside that place. I don’t know what it looked like. Cause I just lived down the street about half a block from the end of that. And we had an hour off for lunch and I went home at lunchtime. So I didn’t need the restroom."
"when I hired out, I got paid 54 cents an hour. When I did the job up in the machine shop, I got up to 72 cents an hour. So big money. But I was able to save 5 dollars every payday in the bank account, so when we did get married I had the down payment for a house. "
"Except for the railroad, there wasn’t much job opportunity for people in Renovo because there was no other industry at that time."
History
Railroad
Lois
Charlie
Art