The following transcript of

Thomas “Tom” Crowther’s interview

on

Memories and Music (broadcast February 10, 1974)

was created by the Sudbury Public Library as part of a

Summer Canada Project

in 1982.

SUDBURY PUBLIC LIBRARY

INTERVIEWEE: Tom Crowther INTERVIEWER:

TAPE NO: 83

. THEME:

D. M. Well f riends '.and neighbours our guest today is Mr . Tom !f Crowther, · Sr . Mr . Crowther retired last July 7, after 43 ~nd J[ one half years with Inco. At ~ the time he litH" retl.red , he was the General Safety Supervl.sor for I neo . - ~ \,:" Well Tom we ' re going to talk later if we may0about safety , And some of t he, your sp·ecial interest there . But before we · do we, were going to start r ight at the beginning as we like t o. Well where are you from Tom , where ' s your home town?

T. C. Belfast , Northern Ireland .

D.M. And ••• what year you were , you were born there , what . year were 70U born there?

T'C . 1909.

D. M. Did you go, presumably you would go ' to public schoof ~~ high school in Belfast .

T. C. · es I went to public school ·and then at the age of. 14 I ·left and I went to technical sH school in the evenings.

D. M. What sort of things im did you learn in tech school?

T. e . Well I had a commereial course - bookkeeping and (unintelligibl methods and the like and .general knowleqge .

D. M. Well that would come in pretty handy ' in later years I suppose .

T'C . Yes that was the field I was f% follwwing at that ± time .

D.M. Well I gather Tom that times weren,' t t oo good ± at Belfast~ That with the Cr owthers , at that time and that you , you left high schqml 'and went to wor k or studied at high school at night . ~')_ that true? .

T. e • . That ' s right . \

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How ol d were you when you went to work?

14 .

And a , what was your f~rst job~

The Albany Clothing Company where I made lining and cut , .«x cutting things for a ' men ' s, boys ', men and boys ' suits and overcoats .

And how would a young Xx fellow like of 14 get a ,job with a clothing company as a cutter? How d~d' that xxk work out? ,

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T. O. We l l I was informed by a friend at the , I went and s een a Mr . Featherstone t here. I coul d get a job and I went and asked and ·the guy , the guy was a1 littl e pretur bed . She asked me if somebody else will do because Mr . Rxaa Feather ­XBX stone was the pres ident . And I stuck ·with my guns and finally the f±« vice- president , a Mr . Loui s come out and h& asked me what I wanted and I said I would l ike a job . He said"O. K. when do you want to start . ! :f I said , "Anytime ." He said , "Well you can start now." This was 2 o ' clock in the afternoon , so I was · in .the payroib l right · off .

D. M. Well what did ~ they do hand you a s c issors and say , say cut here., or what did you do about that .

1.0 . Nothing~ they~e~t me with another man who two days showed me HEx all that I had to do and from there on I was on my IUD( own .

D. M. And , woul d this make you a tailor in a sense, \

T. O. No not exactly I cut , I cut out the a , the patterns and then they were jx cut by bandknif e machine and taken up to th~ sewing room where the girls put them all together .

D. M. This would be sort of :i: a clothing sort of manufacture.

T. O. Yes .

D. M. Was it?

T. O. For ready- mades , yes .

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Right . Well now this time?

• • • how many would be in your family at

At , at that time there was 6 , 6 surviving members of the f amily •

. That is t o say your father and mother and some sisters, was that it ( I don 't know . )

Yes I had five , f i ve sisters , f our older and one younger than I self at that time .

Well I ' ll be dar ned, well how do' there then?

• • • what , what did your father

He was a machini"st in the shipyard i n Belfast .

shipyaad, iHKxK (

1 ~",1L . Well now /most· of us :i:k§xH city . It ' s not , eh? '

thought that Belfast was an inland

No I ," the 10ck ,Kmi :tk Belfast lock comes right up onto the docks ,KH« right up almost t o, to the center of the city. There ' s lar ge boats come up there . I .t )-s a regular port.

()'~o Right well then we ' re talking around?the years of ' 21 or '22 around in there XmKH Tom and you ' re a , how long did you , did

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you stray at this job as a cutter?

Oh about 4 months and then I got . the , IDlx«kx±x caught in the flu epidemic and a,fterabout 6 weeks illness I , I didn ' t go back there . I went and found anothet' job:t.

We l l now that ' s interesti ng , why about , why t his other job? Did you want , not like the work? Wanted a different type of job or s omething.

Yes I wanted to get into the clerical field and I , I got a job with a building company as a est imate , junior estimate clerk.

Oh I s ee and what sort of work did you do~ there?

Well I assisted in keeping th~ kk books and also assisting in t he cost of building materials and when they were looking f or a contract . ' .

Oh I s ee . - RBKxb:Well how l ong did you stay at that?

Oh about 3~ years .

And then what happened?

~\ingS got bad in the bui lding trade and I was out of work again and a , ·1 fina~ly got a jo~ i n .a wholesa le distribut~~ company , distributing goods in i small stores . I stayed there for about two years .

O. K. Tom we ' re two years , at l east we ' re in Belfast and we got you two years with a whol esale grocer . .but you l~ft there ; af ter , why did you leave there aft er?

ixgBx Well I got hurt playing football and enaed ~p in the hospital for a while and when I went, recovered I /,wasn ' t able to get a job . I finally went on the unemployment insuraace for a short time and then on November 29 I sailed for Canada .

Well it jtist being t he start of th~ depression , that ' s as good a time as any to takeoff , eh? .

I t was , it was . t es it was bad at that time in the D b: old country. -

D. M. Bad over here t oo , ~BBTom a littl e bit later. N~ _But now I believe that y6u had some , f irst of all what, what made you decide to come to Cana9.-a and what xx part of Canada did you come to?

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D.M.

Well I had two older sisters living in Copper Cliff and they int erceded and got me a j ob with Inco. I had a j ob promised to me , before I left , and so I decided to come to Coppes Cliff direct .

Wellt that ' s interesting. Had , had these older sisters , had tney immigrant ed to C~nada and married here and gone to Copper Cli ff or what .

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Well a, no well one had come out to J01n herKhuskaH~. They were married , she was married in this country but they had been going together all through the ,wB;r, ' the First World War that is. ' Mr. McNice that's the other one, he had them out ahead of Mrs. K McNice and she and the family joined them.

Well now Tom I gather that something kind of fun or at least it seems fun now or ,happened just as you got off the boat at Quebec City . Now what was that story. '

Well I; I , I was off the boat pretty earlY, and got in ;tine for the immigration and a minister came along and started to talk to, me, where I was going and asked me my religion , I told him that I was a Presbyterian. He told me a that at Copper Cliff there was no Presbyterian church but it was United . We had a short talk , we gave me a New Testament and wished me good luck . But when I went to get back into li'ne the immigration' officer catched me -to the end and I was K very hungry at the time and by the time I got through immigration I" 'I; headed to get something to eat but two ladies nailed me at that time. They K were there to met the train and see that the ~m 'people gkm got on the right place. They made H me get on the train and after they were gone I ,sneeked out and had something to eat and theY 'come • and got me and put me ~ kak~ back on the ~rain , again.

Do you think lOU could've found the train without thei. help? , .

Oh, oh I think so but I realize it kat what they were doing was a nice thing. ~ But at , at that XimK partiuuaar time thou!Sh they were becoming somewhat of a pest to me.

We,ll friends and neighbours we're having a ch~t with Tom , Crowther , Sr. whose Belfast , Irelarl~. He's told us about

. various jobs he had back in Belfast - a cutter ~ at a wholesale zm clothing company working later in a wholesale grocer, getting hurt playing football took off for Canada, arrived in Quebec in 1929 as I remember it and then came to Copper Cliff where your sistee had arranged for a job for you by. First of all Tom , any, ~ any impressions. What Jdm ' u were ' your impressions of , Canadai ,a yov.ng fellow coming over from Belfast?

Well a, the snow of course was one big thing I had never had , so much snow in my life . I got a little bit lDIX crossed up , I sent ,a telegram from MacAer I think it was. That I would

\ arr ive in Sudbury at 9, but the train arri ved at 7 and a , there were aximx alot of people walking around with pack­sacks on there backs talking strange languages and I wondered just what I had gotten into.

Right.

But finally my, my sister and brother-in-Yaw arrived and

At 9, at the time you said you would arrive.

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T. C. Yeah' wel l they came early , the , the Rzizx C.H.R. police saw me walki ng around and they contacted them .

D. M. ~ight .

T. C. And we , they went by the ( ) t o Copper Cliff .

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So you, you were pret t y well treat ed t hen by str ange@6 on your (unint elligible)

(unintelligible ) I guess . . rJuf . 'Right. So t hen you s t arted to working I gather~ you wer e axmH«k mucker at xhe end of a shovel , is that rig~t?

Tha~~\~ Eight . ''*::(o» , O. K. that would be ,~rRXx~ that would be pret ty hard work K Tom , was that, you have a stor y to te l l XK about that I believe .

T. C. Well , I , I find it quite hard Xu coming from office work to manual labour . But a few old Polish peopl e did the hard stuff for me . Get me a hand if I upse t a wheelbarrow they kRipK str aightened it up and , and went along with me for a week or ,two until I got a l ittle hardened~ up to the work .

D. M. Tom t hat ' s a nice story and , a~d I don ' t suppose you remember , XkKrK their names or where those people are n ow .

T. C. I think one of them was Mic~ael , MkR Mike Sharco I , I don ' t know j ust where Michael is at the moment .

D. M. Mike if you ' re listening Tom Crowther remembers and he ' s still appreciated , is that right~

T. C. I do .

D. M. I , I liked that story . Now I gatherK t hat things sort of went al ong until around 1932 and you were t 'old since you were a singl e man that RX x eit her get yours~lfmarried up or that ' s it , is . that right?

T. C. That ' s , t hat ' s right . I was warned sever al times that I)~ DIi beteer get married if I wanted to hold a j ob ahd f inally in 2 August they came and handed me my blue slip .

D. M. Right . All right . So how did you surviu:e then?

T. C. Well I t ook a j ob at the Copperi Cliff Bank , trimming the hedge , and cutting the grass and washing the few windews ,

of which I got 35 cents of for the' hours I worked and I built a few porches , on kmHxs houses of friends liB for $5 ago . I , I think it was more or 'less to help me out. I don ' t think possibly they needed the por ches.

D. M. Tom there must have been something about 'you , that brought out the best . (unintelligible )

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.T.C. Well, well I have met alot of nice 1 people here.

D.M. Met alot of nice people in your time ,

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D~M .

Yes , oh yes.

Any of those, those people still how did they stand up?

T. C. Well as far as I know, there still there. I ' ve never have gone to look but the people are gone .

D. M • . Right . Well now after axfB the few years of this sort of thing , you did get back to Inco again. Isn ' t that right?

'f:¥:~xxilRtl T.C. Yes I got back in October , I think I got . 10 ·~ days work

(unintelligible). Then we were let off again and I was r ecalled in January ijx ' 33 where I went to the Orford building working 2/3 timex.

D. M. Right and how long were you at that?

I start in the Orford until 1936 of June when I became a i±rB firstatte man at the ( ~ ) plant .

Wellx now we ' re getting into this first am± aid area now and I gather that thi~ was not your' own idea , is that right?

T. C No I was told in 1974 that I should take the classes and . ' .. ~n ' t to~py about this and I ll! missed the first one ' &J Cl r ned nd I , I was .. !tie\! about it , and I missed the second

one and finally I was called to the office and told that if I wasn ' t there on the third meeting not to come back xo work. So

D. M. So I gk gather .

~ . C . I got a little bit of sense .

D. M • . &i. all right , x~ O. K. well now we seem to be pushing along here and I ,think we 're up to abqut the year 1937 . I think you got married , married about t his time , is that right , eh?

T. C. Yes I got married i on August the 31st , 1937.

D. M. Was this to a, a Sudbury girl?

T. C. No a Copper Cliff ~ girl , born in Copper Cliff .

D. M. Now how often we ask these people , how they , how they met? Do you remember how , how you met?

T. C. Well I had K friend~bY the name of "Sharky . " I used to visit quite often atid then mywo , my wife and one of' the Sharky girls were good friends and gradually they just . stuck together,.. .

DoM. ~as)~KH ' sh~ working in~("XMx town here?

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T. C. She was a , working for the telephone comp~ny i~ K Copper Cli ff . )

D. M.. (unintelligible)

T. C. And then she moved to the refinery as a telephone operator.

D. M. Now this is going to put , really p~t you on the spot Tom. What was there particu~arly about this girl that appealed to you?

T. C. Oh she ' s a good sport and 'we got along· tqgether and she ' s a very good-looking girl . I ' ve been ~ complimented many times \ef how did an ugly XB looking person like me ,

g get such a~~-looking woman . .

D . M ~ Tome: you have not , yoU: have not .lost a bit of that Irish pliaty now . (unintell igible )

T.C . Don Dunbar used to give me that all the time .

D. M. ~.JU,)c.\\

All right , Tom. , We got you married about 1937. What about family , have you k any family?

T. C. Yes I got three children. The eldest one Tom , he ' s on the budget system in the General office accounting 'department . I got a 17 year old son , Allan' going to high BX school and my daughter Sharon she ' s marr~.d in Toronto .

D. M. Well now what about grandchildren?

T.C . I have five , five grandchildren. Three live in Copper Cliff and two ,live in Toronto . , . 11# · "

D. M. This might be - a\,g:ood time to say "hello"to those grandchildren To name the~ an~ish them well or somethingx like that.

T. C. Well there ' s Wendy and Randy and ' Cindy at Copper Cliff and Steven and Jeffery at Toron'fo • .

D. M. How m« old are they , ~e: the~randchildren in Copper Cliff1

T. C. Wendy I think is 6 and Randy would be 4 and Cindy would be . about 2, I ' m not KBXe: too sure of that . But that ' s pretty

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D.M •. ~ How , how . do they do at Christmas and the iz birthdays pretty well'Z

T.C Oh very well • . We , like like '-

• we to , most times Christmas they ' ll come over and open their presents and

D.M . And Santa Claus shows up , does he?

I T. C. And Santa Claus , yeah Santa Claus is usually prettygoo~ to them .

D.M. Just one other thought Tom as we were XHk talking here. I

gather that your wife was , is the daughter of Dan Thomas who we had on the show earlier , is that right?

T. O. Yeah that ' s right , yes .

D. M. Well now Tom here we g got you up to '37 , you played a little cricket in the old l~nd but you , you worked didn ' t , softball didn ' t come very easily over here, ~s / that right?

T. O. No some , some of my friends KRr at work talked me into trying softball . I could catch the ball and field it abut when it came to kKXti batting it , it was 3 swings 'and I was out.

D. M. Good throWK but no hit or something (un~ntelligible)

T.O . x gx Yeah , I couldn ' t hit the ball at all .

D. M. You cal l it . What about some of X your hobbies, I gather you like readtng about ancient history , is that right Tom?

T. O. Yes~ I , I like to rea~~me of the old , Solomon, days of Solomon and David and the , old Egyptian and.

D. M., Your not Dk· talking about the Bil le at ' this time are;J you?

T. O. No , no , no these are books of ~ ( fictional books.

~) they ' re

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Well now X Tom as Safety Engine~r for the company, let ' ~ go back a bit. You were telling us that when you got into that field , it was , it wasn ' t what you really wanted. What are some of the improvements that have been made in safety with the company, s i nce ,you XK.1; started'l

Well the introduction of, gradual introduction of safety equipment • . The mandatory wearing of safety glassesxkK«x has saved lots of eyes . Then the safety boots , there ' s a mandatory thing and has saved alot 'of feet and hard hats, gamex±X; of course , came in because of continuing head injuries . These were all introduced by the safety depart-ment and are n o mand.atory on the job. '

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Now I think , i t ,j ~~en goes farthee doe'sn ' tit? Into SIIJmai special gloves and belts and

Yes a special gloves and specaal gm cfothing to be worn around furnaces where there is fire and the~ very particular about people who are working on heights wearing a safety belt and a life-line.

D. M. ' Now you, you mentioned earlier that , so management is really BKYi safety miNRd minded. I believe your in a position to know that , eh? .

T.O. Yes over, over the last , great number of years they , management has beenH quite safety x conscieus and~ KX a, and would support the safety department and all their enterprises to stop accidents.

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Anether area Te~ that yeu ,~ yeu teld us abeut befere this k& breadcast was abeut werkmen ' s cempensatien. That at ene time that machinery seemed to. meve k prettiy slewly there but it ' s been speeded up. Is that Xxx true?

' * Yes it was . Can hit and miss in the early days but new ta~~ ' the , the set up we have new the claims go. threugh quite quickly and the peeple K who. are en cempensatien can get all the assistance they .require to., frem the effic~.

New anether area Tem that yeu weuld;be invelved er weuld knew abeut is first aid . I think yeu're pretty preud ef the Ince ' first aid ¢ eperatien new, is that true?

Oh yes , that is one ef the pest that I knew ef anywhere and eur peeple are well- trained and certainlygwe ceuld match them against anyene~ ~nywhere .

Right . Well Tem yeu haven ' t been retired lOI\g eneugh to. , we talked to. ene lady en here who. I think has been retired since 1937 m:r (vnintelligible ) . I den ' t knew if, yeu remem­ber hearing that pregram OX er net but a very , very charming gal that has been retired a leng ~ime • . Yeu've been retire~ just a matter ef weeks er menths 'er semething like that. But hew ' s it werkmng out, hew ' s it leek new?

Oh I'm , I ' m quite Khappy with it . As time gees en I , I ' ll get interested in KHZ several things but I den ' t find time dragging with me at all .

I think yeu ' re i pretty K happy with yeur «m K camp eut here, is that right?

Yes , I , . I , I enjey my . camp and I ' m leeking ferward to. getting d9wn there and g:r gardening and fishing and ef ceurse in the summer time I like to. get eut gelfing as eften as pessible.

New H what abeut yeur wife , ,what are her hebbies? Dees she . - 1.1 like to. camp?KX II ~K Let ' s talk abeut her fer a bi: ,~, . .

Oh well she enjeys the camp particularly since it became a little mere medern and she enjeye bewling and she plays ,cards with her friends and different things. Of ceurse, her grand­children she ' s get a big interest there • .

Tem as we. have been talking ene thing has ' ceme to. mind . First ef all I gather -yeu have travelled a fair x ,bit in Canada , ~s that right? '

Oh yes I ' ve be~~\.~e Vanceuver and Victer~a. I've been dewn . to. Flerida and Vtn~ eld ceuntry. I made a trip ene time , that was bringing me eut ata near Menteeal en the far side ef, I ferget the'name ef~ «f the place and it was regarded as a teugh custeme:r place and they , we pulled up and the has enly ene car there and HEX several. efficers ceme eut and ·they said , "Well we have to. leek in: B yeur trunk. it

:3t and I say,"Just a mement , I ' ll get the key." What had

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happened is my trunk was stuck and I had to use a crowbar to open it . I ' gQt a crowbar out and everybody laughed and said , "Never mind , go ahead ."

. D. M. Well Tom one final thought now . You , you ' ve seen Canada

from g coast to coast . You could 1 suppose within reason live jus:t about anywhere you l i ke ,but you ' ve chosen to live i n Copper Cl iff or in Sudbury here . Let ' s talk about that .

T. C. That ' s right . I like , I li~e t he K:e: area . I ' ve got lots of , good friends here and I , wouldn ' t want to move to somewhere , else . '

D. M. Well R friends we' ve just f i nished chatting wit~ Mr. Tom Crowther , Sr . who retired last .July - General safety supervisor with Inco after 43 and a half years with the company •

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