Roebling Factory Worker Comments About The Burg

Roebling Factory Worker Comments About The Burg
From a Roebling Factory History Site.

PAT MIGLIACCIO
Born on Elmer Street in 1914, Pat joined his father at Roebling
when he was 17 and remained for 33 years. Pat's father was a
watchman and worked there 50 years. On family and Chambersburg:
All the families had gardens. They grew food, that's what they
lived on during the summer. We had a pear tree in the back yard.
My father planted lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, etc., and he used
to make his own wine. Every year he made about two 50 gallon
barrels. My mother used to make her own bread, four or five big
loaves. I took it to the bakery shop in a house on Whitaker
Avenue with a big oven. They would bake bread for the whole
community for two or three cents a loaf. In my day, there were
no restaurants in Chambersburg. They had a lot of pizza parlors.
We used to call them tomato pies. Everybody ate at home. I never
remember my mother and father going out to eat. On shift work:
Hard. Real hard work. Every bit of those 33 years. I never
worked steady days. When I got a job there I was 17 years old,
I had to work 12 midnight to 8 a.m. and I hated it.
On dances: There was the Grand Ballroom, the Blizzard on Warren
Street. They used to have dances there and at St. Joachim's.
Different organizations used to have a dance every night to make
money for their club. They used to go around getting ads from
business people.

JOHN SMITH
On the neighborhood: Roebling was everywhere in Chambersburg.
It was in your church; it was in your schools; it was in your
festivals. Roebling would have a float in the parade, things
like that. The Roebling trucks drove by South Clinton Avenue
every day. You saw their trucks every couple hours, and the men
walking by. It was always visible. Everybody that grew up in the
Burg knew about Roebling's. It was a part of their life, really.

CHARLES BRENNER
On sports teams at Roebling:For many years they had a bowling
league here. Now that was mostly the office people. There were
probably 32 or 36 men's teams broken up into different divisions
and then the women had a league of their own. They had 4 or 6
teams or something like that. They all bowled on Monday night
down at Whitehorse. They had a bowling banquet at the end of the
year and gave out trophies for various accomplishments.
They had a Roebling baseball team. They competed in the
industrial league around here. Roebling, Hills, De Laval, etc.
We had a regular athletic department in the Roebling Company to
supervise all the activities. There would be a golf tournament
in the springtime and anybody could play in that. There was a
basketball team which Roebling sponsored.

STEPHEN TOTH
On horse drawn wagons: My brother was a truck driver for
Roebling. They had horses and wagons first. The stable used to
be there on Swan and Whitaker. They used to line up on Clinton
Street. They'd go out to the wire mill and pick up wire.