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Eva Sulkusky (8-14-72) House #113

applicants name would come up on the list.
Some couples would wait as long as six years
until their names came up on the list as
next in line for a house rented. Eva & her
husband never paid rent or food money to her
parents when she & her husband lived with
them. Rather, the room & board was absorbed
by her family. This was done so that the new
couple could get some money saved for when they
set up their new household. Eva says that this
was not an uncommon procedure for parents. The
only major cost that Eva & her husband had
was that if meat was bought for Eva's husband
so that he may have meat for his lunches when
he worked in the mines. In times of strike
or when the men did not work in the mines,
for various reasons, for extended periods of
time, several means were used to help supplement
the families income. The whole family
would go out & pick huckleberries which were
then sold for cash. Also, men would hire themselves
out to farms in the Long Pond area.
The men would go to these farms & work
various jobs on the farms. They would be gone
from Eckley all week long, returning only on
Sundays. The men would be paid a small wage,
& in town, the men would spend this money to
buy food, from the same farmer, which was then
brought home so the family would have food on
the table. While the men worked on these farms,
they would sleep in the farmer's barn. A very
large segment of Eckley's male population would
go to work on these farms. These times were
very tough on the Eckley mining families, &
a family would do a great many things to save