Going through high school letters between history enthusiast favorite grandson and his grandparents: “ . . . anyway, my semester report has to be about any period and subject in Amer. History. (Pretty Wide Choice, Huh?) And my choice was George Washington, and since you both are old enough to remember meeting him . . . just kidding!”
In some homes the dayshift workers would get up and go to work and then the nite shift would come home and go to bed in the same bed that the day shift just left so forth & so on. Lot of locations had big boarding houses for the single workers. The coffee pot was on the stove all day long.
…‘before showers’ the mine had long troughs for the miners to wash in. They would take off their mining clothes and then put on their cleaner clothes up to their waist and then wash from the waist up. On Saturdays the sauna was a popular place. All the miners in the locality of the saunas made it a ritual to go there and get the rest of the ore & dirt off their bodies. Very few of the company houses had inside plumbing. Only the company big shots had these inside conveniences.
…nearly all the families had cows, pigs, chickens, and big gardens to help supplement their meager wages. Pick berries in summer. All the cities, townships, and schools were run by the company officials. These officials would run for the offices and pressure was put on the voters to vote for them or else their jobs might be in jeopardy. These officials had a lot of stool pigeons working for them. The conditions in the mining area became a lot better when the unions came in in the late 30s.
Monday, January 31, 2022, local, 23:46 CST:
Mnemosyne 20° 38′ conjunct Neptune 21° 26′ Pisces
Neptune opposite USA Neptune 22° 25′ Virgo
Vesta 11° 06′ conjunct Venus 11° 15′ Capricorn
Images: Puritan Mine, Gogebic County, U.P., circa 1915–1920, and next generation retired miner elected as inspector of idle, abandoned mines.