Mom recalls "Joe, Jack, and Victor all worked in the mine in their teenage years, though before they were 18 boys were not allowed deep into the mine. When Joe was 18, he went down into the deep, and couldn't eat it made him so sick, he had to quit. Jack also didn't last for long, but he had other interests and the mine wasn't for him." The start of World War 11 interrupted what might have been further work in the mine, both because the boys went off to war and because the mine closed because gold was not a priority resource in wartime. In 1942 Jack joined the army air corps. When the mine closed, Karl was sent to Georgia, and then to South Carolina to work in mica mines. These were great jobs because, as experienced miners, they were then in charge of operations, with better pay and more responsibility. Mom recalls "In all, Dad was gone for three years. He came home at Christmas, and for a short time in the summer, and the boys hitchhiked down to see him." In 1944 when Joe and Victor reached the age to be eligible to join up, Joe 17 and Vic 16 (he had to lie that he was 17), went to Staten Island and joined the Merchant Marine and became radio operators. Mom recalled "Imagine what that was like for Mom, Dad was gone, her sons were going across the world, Richard had just died the year before Dad left, and she was home raising nine kids, and very worried about Vic's social health. He was quite a ladies' man and Mom didn't like it." Mom also worked at the mine, as a tour guide. Mom recalls that "they picked the smartest girls in town and offered them the jobs, it was the job to have to help pay for college. It was rare for a Catholic school girl to have the job because a public school teacher ran the program, so most of the spots went to public school kids and I was the only Saint Pat's student working there for those summers." Tour guides at the Homestake Mine, summer after graduation. Mom is in back, second from right Previous Table of Contents Next