CHildren in the smelter / Niños en la fundición

> Formal: construction, farming, manufacturing, mining, small businesses, smelting, etc. > Informal: blackberry picking, boarding houses, bootlegging, clothes washing, sausage making.<br>
> Formal: construcción, agricultura, fabricación, minería, pequeñas empresas, fundición, etc. > Informal: cosecha de moras, pensiones, contrabandista, colada, embutimiento.

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Bob
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CHildren in the smelter / Niños en la fundición

Post by Bob »

My father reports that when he was a small child in Spelter, West Virginia, and his father worked at the zinc smelter, it was common practice for children to take lunch to their fathers. They had to cross three railroad tracks to do it, and then enter a world of hellishly hot furnaces, spilled molten zinc and other hazards to accomplish the task. This took place in the early to mid 1920's, and was common practice. No one thought much about it.

Does anyone else have similar family memories from the US or Asturias?

Bob Martinez




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[Translated by JuanLeon]

Mi padre se acuerda de que cuando era pequeño, vivía en Spelter,
Virginia Occidental, y su padre trabajaba en la fundición de zinc, era lo normal que los niños les llevaran el almuerzo a sus padres. Para hacerlo, debían cruzar tres vías de tren, e internarse en un mundo lleno del calor infernal de los hornos, zinc fundido, y otros peligros. Esto tuvo lugar a principios y mediados los años 1920, y era una práctica extendida. A nadie le preocupaba.

¿Tiene alguien recolecciones similares, sean de los EE.UU o de Asturias?

Bob Martínez
Last edited by Bob on Mon Nov 17, 2003 11:26 am, edited 1 time in total.
Barbara Alonso Novellino
Posts: 321
Joined: Wed Oct 22, 2003 9:54 pm
Location: Long Island, New York

Children in the Smelter

Post by Barbara Alonso Novellino »

I have memories of the smelter also.

Back in the late 30's very early 40's my Grandfather worked in the Moundsville, West Virginia Smelter. I can remember as a very young child going with my Grandmother to take him his lunch.

She packed it in a metal can, food on the bottom and then on the top a cup with his coffee. We would walk across the highway, over the Railroad Tracks and then into the mine. I can remember the awful heat...we would walk to the back where he was.

In midafternoon we would hear a whistle blow and then they would release smoke, soot, etc. Before that happened you would see all the people closing their windows...once I was caught on the street, not a nice smell.



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[Translated by JuanLeon]

Yo también tengo memorias de la fundición.

A finales de los 1930 y principios de los 1940 mi abuelo trabajaba en
la fundición de Moundsville, Virginia Occidental. Me acuerdo de haber ido, siendo you muy pequeña, con mi abuela a llevarle el almuerzo.

Lo metía en una lata, la comida al fondo, debajo de una taza con su
café. Cruzábamos la carretera, las vías del tren, y nos metíamos en la mina. Me acuerdo del terrible calor...caminabamos hasta el fondo, donde estaba el abuelo.

Mediada la tarde se solía oír una sirena, antes de que soltaran humo,
hollín, etc. La gente se apresuraba a cerrar todas las ventanas...una vez me cogió en la calle, un olor nada agradable.
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