In today's sixth column, I am in Darktown, a hamlet along the Lehigh River, speaking to resident Mike Bednar, a well-known railroad authority, on the family's plight during the Great Depression. His grandfather's passing left the family of nine facing difficult economic times.

"My grandmother worked at the General Cigar factory," Mike remembers. "My aunts and uncles worked at the jute mill. My father, Joseph, was with the Civilian Conservation Corp. He was up in Home, Pa., near Jimmy Stewart Country, Indiana, Pa.

"The family had a garden, but very little meat was consumed. They made good use of potatoes, cabbage, vegetables. The family ate many potato pancakes fried on the kitchen coal stove."

His grandmother made clothing.

"Many women sewed during the Depression," Mike says. "Clothing was washed by hand using a plunger in a large tub. Hot water was heated on the coal stove. The bathroom was the outhouse, with a half moon on the door for ventilation. Central heat was a coal stove and parlor heater and plenty of blankets."

Coal was an expensive necessity.

"When the Lehigh Valley train would stop behind Darktown, people would climb into the cars and fill buckets of coal or throw some on the ground," he says. "The railroad detectives knew things were tough, so they would close their eyes, but arrest you if they heard you were selling any.

"As a youngster, my uncle Paul would crawl in the back of a bakery wagon and borrow a couple of cakes. He was labeled with the name "Cake Eater."

When his grandparents had first come over from Slovakia, the train had stopped at a remote railroad station above Jim Thorpe, in Penn Haven. They were so hungry they ate huckleberries that grew near the railroads.

"So one day my father and some Darktown boys climbed into an empty box car at West Catty and rode to Penn Haven," Mike says. "There, they picked buckets full of huckleberries. They stayed over night and the switch tower operator let them sleep in the tower. The next day they boarded a train from Hazleton. They arrived home with berries everyone in Darktown could enjoy."

I asked about Christmas.

"My grandmother said there were very few gifts," Mike laments. "Christmas Eve was both festive and religious. They ate a Slovak meal where the entire family sat at the table and appreciated their blessings. They were 'one,' a family together enjoying a meal. After the meal, all of the family walked across the bridge for midnight Mass at St. Andrew's Slovak Church in Catasauqua."

I asked Mike to speak about his father, Joseph.

"In those days you had to work to get any kind of aid, so he signed up with the Civilian Conservation Corp," he said. "It was a program to put young fellows to work on rural conservation projects. They enlisted young unmarried men between 18 and 25 who were unemployed. They received $1 a day but were required to send $25 home to help the family."

When Joseph returned home, he was able to find employment at the Phoenix Manufacturing Company in Catasauqua. My older readers remember the plant as "the Horse Shoe." The old Bryden Horse Shoe Plant was one of the largest horse shoe plants in the world.

The horse disappeared but the Phoenix saved the plant, modernized with new equipment, and produced forgings sold throughout the world. The company has survived and continues to operate in Catasauqua.

Joseph Bednar operated one of the large forging hammers. The work was hot and dangerous.

In 1939, he met an attractive young lady, Ms. Betty Dunkel. They married in 1939 and rented an apartment in "the Brickee," the former Thomas Iron Company tavern that formerly housed iron workers who came from Wales to work at the Hokendauqua plant. The old Darktown Tavern was recently demolished to make way for construction of the new Hokendauqua Bridge.

A letter from Uncle Sam changed Mr. Bednar's life. On Nov. 9, 1943 he was inducted into the U.S. Navy.

The men left from the Egypt Elementary School, not knowing where they would go or when they hopefully would return to their houses.

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In two weeks: from Darktown to Okinawa.