In the early 1920's Pop concluded the conversion of the steel mill from steam power to electric power and we moved to a little town called Cambrook which was a suburb of Johnstown. In another six months when he completed the work at Cambrook we moved to a nearby town called Moxin. At the end of the year we moved from Moxin back to Wyano.
My first promotion .... and demotion
In the fall of 1921, although I could not speak English at all, I went to first grade at school. We were told to take our seats (at least I saw that all the students were taking their seats after the teacher, said something-in English) and I happened to sit on the left of a young student who could draw. He was drawing steam shovels and I was extremely impressed. The teacher asked some kind of a question and several of the students raised their hand, as did the artist sitting next to me. For that reason I also raised my hand. (I later found out that what she asked was "who has been in the first grade before?"). Thereupon, she marched eight of us to a room across the hall to what turned out to be the second grade. The second grade teacher lined eight of us against the wall and handed us a little primer that had some very nice pictures in it. The first person in line was asked by the teacher to read and she proceeded to read in English from the primer. The second did likewise, third likewise and finally the teacher looked at me (I was in the fourth position) and asked me something in English which I did not understand. Fortunately, I had a cousin in the class who yelled at me "chit-tai!"' which means "read" in English. I told her I did not know how to read and she explained this to the teacher. The teacher then told me, with my cousin as interpreter, to go back to the first grade. Instead, when I got into the hall between the two grades I ran out the back door and was through with my education. I did not go back to school for three days. I went to the woods, near the streams, or anywhere until 3:00 o'clock each day, then I would go home. Fortunately, my cousin Anamae told my mother that I was not attending class. When I was confronted by mother and dad I told them that I was embarrassed because I could not speak English. That was the time when dad made the decision that there would be no more speaking in Ukrainian between the parents and the children. The parents always spoke in Ukrainian to each other from then on, but they always spoke in English to the children. This was quite difficult for mother because she had trouble speaking English also. I went to school the rest of the year at Wyano, and must have done all right because I was promoted to the second grade at the end of the year.
In May of 1922 Dad had completed the work at Wyano Mine, and we moved to Connellsville where he was working on electrical sub-station conversion. We lived there only three months, but during that time I saw an airplane flying overhead. This was the first airplane I had ever seen. It was also in this town that I saw my first movie, this was Douglas Fairbanks in Robinson Crusoe. I also saw Emil Lincoln playing the part of Tarzan in a series of movies in this town. In late August of 1922 we moved to Lynn, Pennsylvania which was four miles from Brownsville. I attended second grade in Lynn, (actually the school was in the neighboring coal mining town of Braznell, which was one-mile away). All of the students walked to school in those days. The Lynn coal mines had as an adjunct a series of bee-hives coke ovens, which were spewing the black products of combustion into the atmosphere. Unfortunately for us our home was within 200 feet of one of the ovens, and mother never would hang her clothes up to dry outdoors. That December we moved from Lynn to a small town 10 miles away named Bunker Hill. Here Dad was an operator of a large sub-station for the West Penn Power Company. The school in Bunker Hill was a one-room schoolhouse that handled all grades from first grade through eighth grade. The school was approximately one-half mile from our home and had a teacher by the name of Mr. Herbert Hibbs, who taught all grades. Since he had no students in the second grade and had two students in the third grade, he asked me if I would mind being upgraded to the third grade. I was delighted to do so, and worked hard so that I could read as well as the other two students in my class. I thought there was a great advantage in being in a one-room schoolhouse since each class would take their turn in coming to the front to recite, do arithmetic, have geography lessons, questions on history, etc. I could sit and listen to their answers and learn an awfullot of things and then I could spend a half-hour or an hour each evening to do what little homework that I had to do.
Unfortunately, before the end of the year, Dad received another nice offer to come to the Brier Hill Coal Mines to change their steam-power unit to electrified power. Therefore, I completed my third grade in the spring of '23 in Brier Hill. We remained in Brier Hill until the coal mines closed in 1932. In the meantime, after Dad had completed electrifying the plant, the Superintendent of the mines asked him to stay on as the Chief Electrician of the coal mines which was the highest position ever held by a non- American at that time. I was now approaching the age of 9 and my recollection of the events in Brier Hill are much, much clearer than those from the earlier towns. It was here that I met people who became lifelong friends. I am in contact with many of them who are still living to this day.
A Life Long Lesson
One of my very dear friends was Paul Hovanic. One Sunday he and I went to a farmer's field and stole a dozen ears of sweet com. We then went to Paul's house and cooked and ate the com. Somehow, word got to my Dad that this had happened and he asked me to go with him to the farmer, Mr. Higinbotham, which I did. When Mr. Higinbotham answered the knock on his door my Dad told him that I had stolen a dozen ears of com and that I wanted to pay for it, and more important that I wanted to apologize. I was so embarrassed, but Mr. Higinbotham made it very easy by saying that he had a lot of com and that I was welcome to it. Dad countered with "that's all right, Mr. Higinbotham but Johnny should have asked you first for permission". Mr. Higinbotham agreed that was so, and he took the 50 cents as payment for the com which Dad insisted upon. I was even more embarrassed because a girl that I liked very much was Grace Higinbotham, the farmer's daughter, who was my classmate in all grades beginning with the third grade. I still see her at our Redstone High School reunions.
