Stephen Toth

Stephen was born in 1906 to Hungarian immigrant parents who both worked for Roebling, as did his wife and brother. He started working for Roebling in 1922 as a helper in the electrical department. After attending night school, he became an electrician. He worked for Roebling for 48 years.

On horse drawn wagons: My brother was a truck driver for Roebling. They had horses and wagons first. The stable used to be there on Swan and Whitaker. They used to line up on Clinton Street. They'd go out to the wire mill and pick up wire.

On after work activities: The Reformed Church on Beatty Street and Home Avenue had a young group where we met on a Tuesday night, Thursday night, Sunday afternoon. We had a pool table there and a player piano. We had a big crowd of young people in those days. And we had parties on Sunday night. A tea party. You got tea for a quarter. But you danced around the pool table. You got cookies, too. Everybody danced around the pool table. After that you played cards.

We went down to the club and used the player piano. Put the rolls on it and pumped it and sang whatever song was on the rolls. Or you'd just talk. Sit around the tables and talk. Just pass the time away. Then, of course, you had to get out of there by ten or eleven o'clock at night.

On the rope mill products: They used to make the rope that they used on aircraft carriers. Stretched across, when the planes landed, these ropes held them. Then we made the big submarine nets. Big! Oh, they were tough! Them submarines nets, that's a hard job. They made them in rings out of hard steel as big as my finger. You had the ropes for the Otis Elevator Company. We supplied the cable for the San Francisco trolley that goes up and down the hill.


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