Phoebe Mitchell Day Memoir - University of Illinois Springfield

Phoebe MLtchell Day
A. Well, rx7can all ~ cat~ons which you read about, there's a vast
difference f'mm what it was when I come up. As I say, we didn't have a11
this turmoil and camyFng on in the schools. And people, I don't know,
they look like they would give a more helping hand--I don't know. I don't
how. I guess its . . . I don't know.
I'QT mothe-I guess I'm on the type of my mother. My mother always
had her table set . And the mlniisters, then, they didn't get any saw
much, don't you know. And they was always welcome in my mother's
house to come. Whenever they'd dme and sit down and eat, she'd al-
ways have a marble cake made or sanething, you know. Awad she was very
g@neraus, her and Papa, Eke that. I gzless that's where I get mine
from.
Q, All right. Somebody told me tht sane time ago that there were coal
mhes in Sprhgfield. Have you ever heard of it, or seen anylof it, or
anything lLke that?
A, Well, theykad coal miners here. These here Lithuanians, I thbk
worked in the coal mines here. Tony Sockel, his father, here, our
third door neighbor. And the w m
on the comer, Mrs. Berzitls, I thhk
her husband worked Ln the mine. And we've got mines all urader here,
they w.
Q. That's what I've heard.
A, Yes, all d e r here is all mines, yes.
Q. But you have never seen-I mean they have built up Springfield by
the time you were born? By the time you were born, I mean when you were