East-Palestine-Great-Depression-Era-Stories

Depression Era Sayings

• Going have to whittle wooden beaks and pick shit with the chickens.
• I know where you can get a job: Where where??? : Down at the AP picking fly shit out of black pepper
• I know where you can get a job: Where where??? : Go down to the bakery stick your ass out the window and yell doubleloaf

Great Grand Father WittenBerger

• Grew up near New Middletown - was a stagecoach stop "Ginger Hill" - ginger came from the fact that grandad's mother or grandmother would make gingerbread. House built on the hill about 1918 ... later a Hill family lived there and had a girl ...they named Ginger.

• his father was a wagonbuilder -

• tinner / slater / furnace / did most of the slate roofs in East Palestine -
• said "I bet I can give you something perfectly good and you will not eat it" then put donuts in a brand new bedpan full of cider - the fellow did not eat it
• one guy put a bit of pumpkin pie on his shoe and waited for friend to come ...then used his finger to wipe the pie from his shoe and eat it....friend was aghast
• Was very good with horses - bought a troubled horse - seller sarcastically asked "how is that horse?" ....he answered "my wife uses him...he's great!" .... you could tell alot about a person by how they treated their horse
• Horse named Joe - would follow voice commmands - including backing up...
• Kurtley (was in the Boar War...Englishman who immigrated to the USA ) ...Wittenberger wanted to remove stump on the property line. I'd hit you if you weren't and old man ....once/twice ...3rd time the old man laid him out flat. Kurtly was a painter ...guys in the building business did not like him.
• Kurtly family owed money to various businesses around town ( according to Geo Rockenberger ) ... he was going to send his family back to england ...family dressed for traveling...him dressed for work...the family boarded the train...when the train pulled out he jumped on the train at the last moment leaving his debts behind.

Richard Rockenberger

• ice plant was over on West Taggart street / half way before getting to the overhead bridge / made blocks of ice there : Judd Nulf the ice man -
• father was 13/14 had an ice box
• came in 50lbs blocks with grooves that you would allow you to fracture and make a smaller peice
• had to catch the melt in a pan
• got first fridge @ age 14
• not many people had a fridge.

Louis Winters

• Louis Troutman built a train & box car Automobile that traveled on the road > built it for 40 & 8 events > built on International Harvester truck frame / engine > built in Uphostery building on Martin St. after WWII
• One of the 40 & 8 members sat in the middle Market St. in Youngstown and obstructed traffic.
• "40 and 8" was the monkey business offshoot of the American Legion > of the World War I vets
• In France in one box car they had 40 men and 8 horses > 40 hommes e 8 chaveux
• Sharpened lawn mower blades
• laid out astro turf in Milwaukee and mowed it with push lawn mower
• had a cane that would skirt from the bottom of the cane and squirt up under a woman's dress
• had a wooden stool with model T ford coil

Adamson

• bought copper during the depression and stored in the basement of Adamson's. During World War 2 the government bought it.

Truck Farm

• Guy was sick and had a bunch of cucumbers in a patch. Grandfather Hugli bought the cucumbers in patch. There were a bunch of of weeds. Guy said not to weed cucumber garden after a certain time because it would disturb the hair roots. The cucumbers out of the garden were the best cucumbers mother had ever seen.

Electric power

• in the first days of electric power they flickered the lights at night to warn you when the electricity would go off > so you had time to get your oil lamp going
• First power plant was small > would not cover the entire city > behind where the fire station is now
• newer plant at the end of town > all the equipment was out in the open > dangerous! > father had the run of the place
• had 800lbs pressure. When they switched to Ohio Edison ....Edison had 6000lbs pressure
• most houses had their electric meter in the attic. This was because the wires came into the house up high. It was expedient for quick first time install.

East Palestine Police

• before radios: had light bulbs hanging in 4 locations around downtown: If they lit them the cops knew to phone in to headquarters

• father remembers seeing cop running behind guy shooting > aiming to shoot or scare him
• banks had button that went out to nearby offsite business where they had shotguns to stop robbery

• Eagles lodge robbery > got word ahead of time that it would be robbed. Had guys on top and inside with shotguns. 2 robbers ended up on the slab at Olivers funeral home. 1 guy got away.

• Old Mill Gas station > had a bullet hole in the window > from shooting at robbers > father walked by after grade school

Bill Jordon

• Pepsicola Florida > in place of Pensicola Florida
• Car repair - after a fact - not much of a mechanic - father saw several things he screwed up on
• had gas out front
• not too bright
• tried to sell his building for 10X what it was worth ... father queud a guy in not to buy it
• wife at the time had an uncle at a time was an appraiser
• traded the building for a house out on west north avenue
• east crossing of railroad ...go straight into it
• around 1980 and before.

• Momentarily Comma
• Just by fortunate luck Bloco's had a replacement electric motor > had a guy: howard ( Baloni ) Silvas a welder in the shop

Pew family trip to world's fair in New York

• 1939 world's fair
• borrowed money to go
• lost their house
• Chester Reese bought it - was business aquaintance of father's.

Chester Reece

• chester - Worked Hariot trucking company as a mechanic
• Father would troubleshoot the starting system ...starter ran on 24 volts ...charging ran on 12.
• hit the starter - batteries in series
• in charge mode they were charged in parallel
• hard to troubleshoot - Mac Truck > heavy equipment
• Leece DeVille was the first one Father got into > Delco Remy subsid of GM
• head mechanic at Hariots used to say "remains to be seen ...like elephant dung on the sidewalk"

Kenny Hariot

• had a guy leaving late after dark on a run
• put a horse turn in place of popcorn ball in a bag

• regular telegraph > most people did not know about the Postal Telegraph now days
• West Taggart Street...north side of taggart and market

Paul Davis

• always chewing on a cigar
• not a bright bulb
• breathtaking lack of brains
• screwing young girl - wife found him and got rid of him - so he married the young girl after a while - went past everyday to school - underage <18

Emory Torrence

• worked at brother in laws bar - stole enough money to start a coal business
• acted like he had money > put on a big show buying new cars
• was a bad credit risk > when anyone came in on for the coal business grandpa would go into the parts shelves and pretend to look ...then return and say "We do not have it" to avoid extending credit to Emory Torrence

Arthur Compton

• married a McClosky
• visited East Palestine several times
• visited in 30's late

Dave Kibler employee

• Dave was dating a girl in the 8th grade - parents put up with it
• one day when leaving George says "don't come back"
• leaned on counter - father wired up coil tester to aluminum strip and shocked him

Simmons Orchard

• can't you give me a job where I do not have to think

Wittenburger - Revolutionary war era

• 17 kids by first wife and 6 by the second
• first wife was buried before Ohio became a state
• alot of Wittenbergers around New Middletown
• Indiana - alot of W's went there .... a university building named after contributing

Wheelbarrow bet

What the bet was who knows? - loser had to wheel the other to Washington D.C. from East Palestine

McGraw Tire and Rubber

• McGraw was on his way west on a train when someone talked him into getting off in East Palestine and starting his company there
• Charlie Chilson will go back to work when McGraw starts up again - was not very ambitious
• Greaser Chaplow would get your a job if you payed him - he was a son of a bitch

Mental Deficient

• saw an ad of a lady in the south wanting a husband ( year?) --- bought him a ticket
• he walked back and when he returned had holes worn in the bottom of his shoes

Mathew Lyons - lived in house immediately to the west of fathers

• Mathiew Lyons - Big beard - never ever shaved - trimmed with shears
• wife was a relation of the Firestones
• First Person I voted for was Abe Lincoln

Firestone Farms

• Brother came out 1 year in advance to start the farm - 1800
• Katy said "might have trouble getting out of Germany" - name appeared too Jewish when Hitler came to power

Drunk who painted

• painted landscape scenes - lady mentioned that it would be good place in the lake to fish from if there was a stump - 15 seconds later there was a stump

Meyer Paiser

• Daughter was paying Pete Blosco to screw here - she was quite ugly
• Meyer has a scrap iron dealership
• owned part of a company in Pa .. city?
• jewish community in East Palestine? - had no synagogue

Pete Blosco

• was for a time a perpetual drunk after high school
• not too bright
• Bill Ward ( math teacher ) - said to Pete : you try and I will pass you.
• Blosco family had money
• was screwing a girl and her parents came home early. He went out the back window > after WW2 started

Ellen Flynn

• screwed everybody except my dad
• pretty good looking

Bill Flynn

• Brother Jack was friends with Bill Flynn ...they tried to count up how many Bill screwed and got to 30 and quite

John Blosco

• Johnny the Jew - Hoffman used to call him > many thought he was Jewish but he was Russian Orthodox
• Had a scrap yard early on
• sold cars for a while
• Bought up houses during the depression
• Gwere Quay - Stockholder in the bank provided some of the money > distant relative of WS George
• John Remish rented on of them ( the old Soldo place on Grant )

WS George Pottery

• When the old man retired the children pissed the money away.
• Grand Father worked there for a while - was nicknamed "Swede". Alot of people in town thought they were Swedish.
• batterout - put clay down on the wheel. The upside down negative form of the plate was on top the wheel.
• Jiggerman - cut the clay to form the bottom of the plate. Moved over onto a board > Grandfather was a Jiggerman.
• Wareboy - took the board of plates to the dryer. Taken to the kiln after the dryer.
• KilnPlacer - puts the green ware on the kiln furniture

• sagger - the dishes go in 2 circles arranged in a figure 8 pattern. 2 stacks of dishes. Dishes go in the kiln on the sagger. Sagger had holes it in for pins about as long as a cigarette with triangular cross section. All the old plates have 3 small imperfections in their glaze where the pins held up the plate.

A stupid guy came to work. Grandfather said "That guy is a Big Dumb Swede"

Grandfather: One day he was disgusted and said "I am going to throw my hat up in the air and if it comes back down we quit" .... He threw it up and his hat stuck in the rafters.

• Guy got the clap from a woman who worked in the pottery. He went in to the pottery an complained about getting the clap from her in front her and several other ladies.

Boot Legger

• killed rival and took him down into the coal mine that stretched 6 miles between E.P. and Negley.

Single Guy Suicide

• slit wrists and bled out over a bucket to avoid making a mess

Great Uncle Charlie Woods

• Had a feed store
• cart with horse - father would hop on the back and ride out to where delivery was made

Lady robber with the dress shop

• would shoplift in Youngstown and sell dresses in East Palestine

George Rockenberger

• 1932 he received a call from a friend / supplier in Cleveland - "George the banks are closing in Cleveland...you better go get your money out"....he kept his money in his shirt pocket the rest of the depression

Bank Accounts

• Paul Pennel - born 1885 : Told father about how during bank holiday that bank accounts were sold for 10% of their contents

Mothers Father

• Farmer got sick and sold a field of cucumbers site unseen - weeds were deep - leave garden unweeded after a time
• sold baskets -
• tore up will after mothers mother died

John Remish

• Ham Radio - heard him on the broadcast band radio - spurious -
• work 1938 - worked for Taylor radio that sold appliances - west side of Market street - south of main
• ruin TV reception with oscillator near clients house
• Arecibo antenna - walked out over wooden walkway 500 feet over antenna - Sam Harris - ham radio operator - built antennas for them / employee - wrote for QST column - early 70's - Junky Car
• Father walked in thru knee deep snow to operate John's radio because son did not have license to operate rig. Radio was spread out and dangerous to start

Italian complainers

• Saldos - no matter what you gave them they would bitch it was not better

Italian construction equipment theives

• Dinsio - would steal anything
• bank - blew the top of the safe : packed stuff on the top of explosive to muffle sound - several banks on the east coast and one on the west - M.O. was theirs...
• route 46 place - loading a bulldozer - fan from the radiator cut his neck and killed him - no hood on Bulldozer - brother fell onto fan and was decapitated because it was running
• Jack Davis' brother - wife knew a guy who knew them -
• 2 or 3 brothers
• slick
• trained by federal government to go behind enemy lines to get intelligence

The Bum Trade

• The train riding bums had a camp near mile pond on a high spot
• one of them set up a sandwich shop on the corner of Taggart and James south east corner
• Guys would sometimes knock on doors to beg a sandwich
• Some people would put croton oil in their milk - to give the milk thief severe diahrea

RailRoad

• had crossing guards to man the switches
• bums would make a board to ride under car in suspension

Johnny Monk

• John Monk and his brother lived on Main street - south side of street between Methodist church and city building
• chickens roosting on on the headboard of the bed
• brother needed help moving
• Johnny putting cock to wife - brother walked in and asked for help - John said " he'll be over when he's done"
• between fathers and grandfathers age
• Johnny's son was in Texas - checked with railway express - freight agent in ( 1960 ) - how much to cost to get son from Texas if he had him crated up. Railway express agent told father.

Cecil Henry

• Caretaker of the cemetary
• Methodist church expansion - "They just priced me out of religion" > meaning he knew they would be looking for donations

Alex Walker

• Uncle Jack's Age
• zipper did not work - hit the ball / ran for 1st - pecker flipped out as he ran - Audience member " Hey Alex you do not take your bat to first base with you!"

Rafferty Girls

• twins - airheads - knocked on the door and girls mother came to the door - asked for the girl by name - mother asked "why?" X said "I want to fuck her!" ....he was chased off by mother with a broom.

McCready

• Tom McCready / Lymon Laddy
• Pair of guys - neither were bright ...neither could tell time - one got a watch
• one asks other " what time is it?" ... guy with watch says "there she be and showed the watch" asker says "damn she aint" ... both pretending they knew what they were doing.

Gonarhea Guy

• had gonarhea - "the clap" ... doc can you get the clap off the toilet seat ... Doc Hartford said "yeah but its a hell of a place to take a women" .... Zeke Canal
• family from Red Hill - east of the city somewhere before the Canelton road

• Another guy got the gonnarhea. He took a cows tail from the butcher shop and shoved it in the woman who gave it to him. The cow's tail was shaved so it would push in easily but would lock in due to the direction of the hairs and induce alot of pain.

Condom Recycling

• fish out of sewer plant / wash / dry on broom poles
• Kleiner
• had a small pickup store later
• had an adopted son: Petey - ( sisters age )
• owned / controlled Mile Pond - nothing but carp
• lived for a while in the double house ( next to Edna Lotz )
• Wife was screwing the bread man - She got "bred" at the front door.

Movie Theatre

• Brother Jack would go to theatre - could tell how many friends were with because of the number of piss streams on sidewalk by lumber company afterwards
• Farted in theatre - second time when he lifted rump to fart lady hit him on the head with a handbag
• was a big drinker and rolled 2 cars
• put a big rudder on a small fishing boat and ended up tipping it over in Canada and drowning. - Father saw Jack putting on bigger rudder and thought "mistake" but said nothing
• Alot of his friends met untimely ends
• knights of columbus
• minstrel show
• very popular

Electrified Urinals

• Superindendant of schools - Palmer - Model T coil - alot of zort
• Place in New Springfield - colored guys going down in the corner of a basement to pee...person electrified the spot

Lumber Yard - Wilhelm

• could sit and listen to list of numbers and find errors in math

McClures

• on Clark street would be sitting in office. appeared to be doing nothing. were thinking about where to invest next. Father had made alot of money as a director for National City Bank. Father McClure had been a track star in high school. McClure building supply. Sold sand / gravel / brinks ...at one time made their own bricks.

Black guy in a smoke house

• Black guy did something the whites did not like. They took him into a smoke house and nailed his balls to big section of log. Gave him a knife and set the place on fire. Someplace north of Youngstown.
• Don Hulls dad knew about it...how far back do not know.

Ray Young

• Ray Young - carpenter - would buy too much lumber and show the invoice to the customer. Then return the extra to the lumber yard to get a credit - to pull extract more money from the customer
• would go to work with an empty nail apron and go home with a full one. - chiseling
• Kenny Hicks - electrical guy put ladder up against wall stud...the stud fell out.
• came home from vacation and did not have a key. crawled in the basement window head first. Fell down to floor and clonked his head and shortly thereafter died. After 1955
• Dumb and made up for it by being crooked.
• Father went to buy concrete and found Ray Young stumped by a graphical concrete calculator.
• Wife - Mrs Young was from Red Hill area - she always thought she was something.
• Brother of wife was the one who asked Dr. Hartford if you could get the clap off a toilet seat.

• shot himself in the foot to avoid being sent to the front in World War One

Frank Howard

• was in "the pine" run by by brother of Mrs Young
• Frank Howard asked "where does a guy take a piss around here?" ... right here was the answer
• he whipped it out and pee'd on the spot with the splatter hitting a womans leg.
• Trip to Canada spit a tobacco chaw out the front window...came back in the rear window and hit passenger across the bridge of the nose.

Conneaut Beith

• owned the pines - had a heater stove and would pull the ashes out of the stove on to the floor and leave them
• got really drunk at conneaut lake

Red Hill

• There was a mine there. Reddish waste rock that was in between slate and coal and would not burn. Thus the name Red Hill.
• Boot leggers lived there.
• most the people living there were trash.

Peaches Bacon

• Casio had a small store that sold fresh fruits and vegetables.
• one day he had some very large peaches
• Mr Bacon walked in with some friends and said "It does not take many of those peaches to make a dozen"
• from then on he was known as "Peaches Bacon"

Car dealer in car with married women

• dealer was in a car with married woman
• husband rammed car - car dealer bit off nipple of woman.

puked teeth into toilet

• drunk guy with false teeth puked them into toilet in a bar
• reached in and grabbed them and put them back in mouth

Fictional story about coney island

guy returns to europe after visiting USA. Talked to friend when I was at coney island got a hot dog to eat. You would never guess what part of a dog it was!

Get story about WWI -grandfather

• sleeping in horse shit
• soldered up can with whisky bottle inside

etc

Jake the horse stories

• get story about telling horse to back up!

George Coil

• hitchhiked / walked to california > stayed in Stockton. 1940 ish.

Bums riding the rails

• put boards on the rods underneath the box car

Background

• few people had horses
• few people had cars
• notice all the small store front / houses around town - was more of a community
• many lodges - Eagles - Odd Fellows - Masons - knights of columbus what else?
• Many churches considering only 5000 people
• Industries - pottery / furniture / refractories / tires / paper mill / steel fabrication ...outsized for size of city
• bent tube
• alot of little factories in addition to the big ones
• people ate dandelion greens and water cress

Later day echos - The 70's

• a fellow was in an accident - got clonked on the head badly and thus talked slowly like a retard
• When caught with weed by cops: "You got me there chief, You're too smart for me!"

NickNames

• Snake Holloway - big pecker
• Cowshit Conkle - came from family of dairymen
• Cutty Mackall
• Pissy Bacon
• Leana Bacon
• Porky Bacon
• Slime Blythe
• Chicago Borelli
• Thievy Barnhouse
• Caparelli - math class - asked Bill Ward "don't you have a longer yard stick?"
• crappy Zeigler

• Cauneat Bates - went to Cauneat park and got drunk - had run down old little house > pulled out ashes from coal stove onto the floor > entire floor was covered > was turned into a bar.
  • Frank Howard asked Zeke Canel owner of the bar "where do we take a leak around here?"
  • Zeke answered "right here" > Frank took it out and pissed right there. 2 couples right next to him got a bit of splatter.

• Zeke is the guy who asked Dr Hartford if you can get the clap off of a toilet seat. Dr Hartford answered "yes but it is a hell of a place to take a woman"

A guy who got the clap shaved a piece of cow tail and put in vagina with hairs pointing negative of woman who gave it to him. He then ripped it out to cause her pain for revenge.