PINNICK KINNICK HILL: AN AMERICAN STORY

Chapter Six

PINNICK KINNICK HILL 40 Chapter Six A s some of the men began to move out of town with their families, the scabs would move their families into the vacant homes. The mortgages on the houses were forfeited to the company, as they had advanced the money to the residents, and the titles were transferred to the new residents. That is how the Milton Beard family came to be a neighbor of the Juan Villanueva family. They moved in next door when Constante El Sordo, his wife Nieves and their three children, Jorge, Anton, and Serena, left Glenncoe to live in Cherryvale, Kansas, where Constante had two brothers working at the smelter. Glenncoe was now the official name of what had for years been known as Coe’s Run. Glenncoe was incorporated, and a United States Post Office was erected and a new Postmaster installed. But almost every one in the town would know it by another name: Crossetti. No sooner had the Beards moved next door when our troubles started with Old Lady Beard, her daughter Gladys and the two younger boys, Albert and Earl. (Milton, Otis and Paul were scabs at the smelter and were rarely around.) They began to call us Spics and all kinds of names, sticking their tongues out every time one of us would step out of our house. The only time they didn’t do it was when Father was home. They could torment us all day long, but as soon as they saw him, they clamed up. When we told Father about their teasing, he found it hard to believe; when he was around, they acted as innocent as could be. More and more strikebreakers were moving into town. The smelter workers union was rapidly losing its battle. An injunction had been issued against picketing. A large number of unemployed union members were now leaving for other parts of the country. Some were getting out of the zinc smelting business all together. Detroit and the $5 dollar day were beckoning. Families with sons in their late teens were leaving not only for Detroit, but for Akron, Ohio, and its rubber plants; for Canton, Ohio, and its bearings plants; and for Crystal City, Missouri, and its Plate Glass Company. Those with smaller children were leaving for smelters in Oklahoma, Kansas, Indiana, Illinois and other localities. Some of the union members began to be harassed by unknown assailants who fired shots at them from ambushes. Also, their houses would be stoned and their children ganged up on as they went on errands to the store or post office. And when school started, the sons of the scabs would jump them and beat them up. One day, Neto traded cousin Lano an old pair of skates for a Benjamin Air Rifle. It was the kind in which you pumped air into the chamber. The more air, the harder the BB would come out of the barrel. Andres had now gone to work at the Belleport Lamp Chimney Company. At the Glass factory they always employed boys from fourteen years of age and PINNICK KINNICK HILL 41 up to be the ‘finisher’ for a shop composed of three persons: the blower, the gatherer and the finisher. The lamp company made various shapes and sizes of lamp chimneys. There were two shifts; the first shift ran from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. and would resume at 2 p.m. until 6 p.m.; the second shift would run from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. and would resume at 6 p.m. until 10 p.m. In the four hours they would be off, some of the young men would go out in the woods and pick chestnuts, hunt squirrels or just roam through the woods. Some would go home for a rest. The Beards next door were getting bolder and bolder with their insults. They thought they had the Spaniards whipped in the union. They could smell victory. More families were leaving and hardly any new Spanish people were coming to town. One day, Neto came home during the four hours he had off at the glass house. He went to the basement and got his Benjamin Air rifle. He and Pepe Riosa were going to do a little shooting in the nearby woods. Mother and I walked out the front door to go down the lane to Aunt Regina’s at the same time as Neto was leaving. Gladys Beard, who was...