Recently, I received 40 years of Cement Workers Union memorabilia from Mr. James Roth of Nazareth who, with his father, Roland, was active in the old United Cement, Lime and Gympsum Workers International Union.

As a college student, I was a member of this union with my father, almost 60 years ago. We were proud members of Local #115 U.S.L.G.W. at the Universal Atlas Portland Cement Company in Northampton.

One of the first Cement Workers organizers was Mr. Roland Roth. I asked Jim about his father's youth.

"My father was born on the family farm in Bushkill Township," he said. "He had five brothers and six sisters which was normal for the times.

"He attended a one-room schoolhouse, grades one through eight, until he was 16. With only going to the eighth grade, his self education was remarkable. He must have had a gift for numbers, because he was a very precise and accurate bookkeeper.

"My older sister told me she remembered as a little girl, seeing Pop sitting listening to the radio and reading Webster's Dictionary. Even being left handed, I never met anyone with better penmanship."

After the farm, Roland Roth had several odd jobs during the Depression, got married then worked a few years for a local dairy until he started his career at the Nazareth Cement in 1929.

"Most of the original cement locals were chartered between 1932 and 1936," Jim said. "Pop worked in the packhouse as a packer and laborer. He was recording secretary and committeeman of Local #18 until 1954."

The Atlas Museum exhibits the original Nazareth Local #18 charter with Mr. Roth's signature. The year was 1938. Jim followed his father as the local secretary, a position they held for 39 years.

Roland became a union organizer and spent two or three days on the road each week. It was a difficult position. Jim's earliest memories of his father 's union activity occurred in 1940.

"My first exposure to Cement Workers was during a national strike in 1940. There was a mass meeting held at the firehouse in Bath," he said. "I remember sitting in the back seat of Pop's 1929 Studebaker, watching the rally.

"The hall couldn't hold 2,000 workers so they had two large speakers out on the street so that everyone could hear what was going on. Actually as a little 4-year-old, I was pretty scared. Finally a contract was signed and Pop continued his organizing until 1942."

District Council #1 in the Lehigh Valley was the first council to be organized in the United States and Canada. Mr. Roth, a cement worker and union organizer, felt a sense of accomplishment and pride when his fellow workers gained fair wages and improved safety conditions.

Mr. Roland Roth, a pioneer in the Cement Workers Union, died on Sept. 4, 1980.

I thank his son Jim for sharing his memories with me and my readers.

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In two weeks, we will travel back in time and visit North Catasauqua's Willow Brook Farms.