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Whiting, Indiana: Generational Memory, 1991-1993


Interviewee
Dvorscak, Agnes; Dvorscak, John March 12, 1991; May 14, 1991 

Call Number
91-021

Physical Description

48 pages; 2 tapes, 1 7/8 ips, 90 minutes; index

Interviewer
Bodnar, John

Access Status

Open

Scope and Content Note

John Dvorscak, born in 1905, and his wife Agnes Dvorscak, born in 1912, discuss their lives in and memories of Whiting, Indiana, including local employment at Standard Oil Company, church-centered community life, the Great Depression, and the increasing materialism of recent years. Mr. Dvorscak describes the cleaning of tower stills at Standard Oil, his activities with industrial baseball teams in the nineteen twenties, job safety, wages, and the cost of living. In addition, the Dvorscaks discuss pollution, local politics, the increase in the area's population of Mexican-Americans, candle workers, and the popular pastimes of attending vaudeville productions and going to the movies. Mr. Dvorscak also speaks of his family's emigration from Austria-Hungary, in which they walked to Bremen, Germany and took a ship to Ellis Island.

  • Keywords
    • Corporation Names
    • Standard Oil Company
    • Personal Names
    • Willkie, Wendell L.
    • Place Names
    • Ellis Island, New York
    • Subjects
    • community changes
    • community life
    • cost of living
    • emigration
    • films
    • Great Depression
    • industrial baseball teams
    • job safety
    • local employment
    • local politics
    • materialism
    • Mexican-Americans
    • pollution
    • still cleaning
    • vaudeville
    • wages
    • women workers