WEBVTT 00:00:02.000 --> 00:00:10.000 Joni Rabinowitz: Yeah, it is. 00:00:10.000 --> 00:00:14.000 Rabinowitz: Okay. What's your name and your age? 00:00:14.000 --> 00:00:25.000 Michael Grasha: Embarrass me. My name is Michael Gracia. My age. 55. 00:00:25.000 --> 00:00:27.000 Rabinowitz: And where were you born? 00:00:27.000 --> 00:00:37.000 Grasha: In Croatia. In Yugoslavia. Part of Yugoslavia now. 19-- November 3rd, 1919. 00:00:37.000 --> 00:00:41.000 Rabinowitz: What region and village were you born in? 00:00:41.000 --> 00:01:02.000 Grasha: Village, Police. Spelled like police in English. And nearest good sized city was Carliless. 00:01:02.000 --> 00:01:06.000 Rabinowitz: Okay. And your mother's maiden name? Catherine. 00:01:06.000 --> 00:01:16.000 Grasha: Catherine Madeline, mattenyell[ph] 00:01:16.000 --> 00:01:24.000 Just let me check. 00:01:24.000 --> 00:01:32.000 Rabinowitz: Were there any changes in your mother's name or your father's name? 00:01:32.000 --> 00:01:37.000 Grasha: Well. No. 00:01:37.000 --> 00:01:41.000 Rabinowitz: Changes. Changes when? When the family moved to the United States. 00:01:41.000 --> 00:02:07.000 Grasha: Well, it's simply to anglicized Anglicized somewhat by the addition of saying the Russian name where you had grassa with a harsh sound over the S and in in America, not a substitution of the letter H for that accent over the s i c g h. 00:02:07.000 --> 00:02:15.000 Rabinowitz: So it was the same name. You just anglicized spelling. Okay. And your ethnic origin identity. 00:02:15.000 --> 00:02:17.000 Grasha: Croatian. 00:02:17.000 --> 00:02:20.000 Rabinowitz: What languages do you speak? 00:02:20.000 --> 00:02:22.000 Grasha: English and Croatian. 00:02:22.000 --> 00:02:26.000 Rabinowitz: And what about understand? Do you understand any of the languages? 00:02:26.000 --> 00:02:33.000 Grasha: I can understand fairly well most of the Slavonic languages. 00:02:33.000 --> 00:02:36.000 Rabinowitz: Okay. What's your occupation? 00:02:36.000 --> 00:03:09.000 Grasha: I am an optician. Got my start in that way back in well, after the first, second or first Second World War, I came back and started on the job training in Buffalo, New York. And. There after after a couple of years, got my optomic dispensers license, which was required in the New York State. 00:03:09.000 --> 00:03:12.000 Rabinowitz: Okay. And what's your religion? 00:03:12.000 --> 00:03:20.000 Grasha: Roman Catholic. And you perish. Saint Regis here. 00:03:20.000 --> 00:03:24.000 Rabinowitz: What about your political affiliation? 00:03:24.000 --> 00:03:31.000 Grasha: Well, I'm a registered right now registered Democrat. 00:03:31.000 --> 00:03:32.000 Rabinowitz: What do you mean, right now? 00:03:32.000 --> 00:03:55.000 Grasha: Well, I changed now and then at one. Most of my life, I've been a registered Democrat. But I've changed that and 1 or 2 occasions. A Republican and. Rather disillusioned. Disillusioned with. With Mr. Nixon. 00:03:55.000 --> 00:04:01.000 Rabinowitz: Oh. How long have you lived in the Pittsburgh area? 00:04:01.000 --> 00:04:17.000 Grasha: I moved to Pittsburgh from Buffalo, New York, in the. Number 51 family for my wife and children followed me in February of 52. 00:04:17.000 --> 00:04:21.000 Rabinowitz: Why did you come? Why did you see them? 00:04:21.000 --> 00:04:51.000 Grasha: Well, I was elected to the board of the Croatian Fraternal Union at its convention in. September 1951, which was held in Los Angeles, California. And that year I was elected to the board to the position of junior audit director, which is a full time job, a position. So I have to come down here. 00:04:51.000 --> 00:04:57.000 Rabinowitz: Okay. What ethnic fraternal organizations do you belong to? 00:04:57.000 --> 00:05:09.000 Grasha: Two Croatian fraternal Union. The Croatian Catholic Union. Said I used to belong to the Catholic Knights of Saint George. 00:05:09.000 --> 00:05:21.000 Rabinowitz: When did you leave that? How long have you been active in the Croatian Fraternal Union? 00:05:21.000 --> 00:05:43.000 Grasha: Since I can remember, I guess since we came to America in 1929. As a youngster. I, of course wasn't active in the true sense of the word, but I became interested in the society and was signed up by my parents. My father had been here, and. 00:05:43.000 --> 00:05:46.000 My sister came. 00:05:46.000 --> 00:05:58.000 Grasha: And we became members immediately upon entry into the country. I've been a member ever since. The cohesion fraternity. 00:05:58.000 --> 00:06:02.000 Rabinowitz: Okay. What about the Croatian Catholic Union? How long have you belonged to that? 00:06:02.000 --> 00:06:08.000 Grasha: I've been a member of that. 8 or 9 years. 00:06:08.000 --> 00:06:11.000 Rabinowitz: What's what kind of organization is that? 00:06:11.000 --> 00:06:41.000 Grasha: That's also fraternal society, similar to except it's based. It's religious, religiously oriented. More so than the other is not all you need is. Basic orientation is simply the nationality, whereas the Croatian Catholic Union both nationality, but more so the. 00:06:41.000 --> 00:06:49.000 Rabinowitz: Okay. Now, these are some questions about your family history. Um, where were your parents born? 00:06:49.000 --> 00:07:07.000 Grasha: Also in Croatia and farther in the same village as I. My mother. Neighboring village. I don't recall the. 00:07:07.000 --> 00:07:15.000 Rabinowitz: Okay. Uh, where did your parents what was the port of entry of your parents into? And when was that? 00:07:15.000 --> 00:07:48.000 Grasha: When my father came in 1922. My sister, I. He had a brother here who had been here much longer. Paid his way over. After my father had served. Served his stint in the Austro-Hungarian army. The First World War. 00:07:48.000 --> 00:07:51.000 Rabinowitz: And he stayed with his brother until he sent for you. 00:07:51.000 --> 00:08:02.000 Grasha: Well, he came to his brother, but then subsequently got it. That was here in Rankin, Pennsylvania. Then he moved down to Gary, Indiana. And then to Buffalo, New York. 00:08:02.000 --> 00:08:18.000 And steel mills. And then you and your mother and your sister came in 29. July of. And in December of that year. 00:08:18.000 --> 00:08:34.000 Grasha: The big bust. Most of these jobs or here we were in a new country and on welfare for next. Basics. 00:08:34.000 --> 00:08:46.000 Rabinowitz: Okay, we're going to have some other economic things later on. Did your family your family originally tended to stay here when they first came? 00:08:46.000 --> 00:09:10.000 Grasha: Their business. Dream, I suppose, of much earlier. Settlers say those that came here before the turn of the century, but most of those that came subsequently. Had any intention of going back. 00:09:10.000 --> 00:09:17.000 Rabinowitz: When did you or your family move into the Pittsburgh area? 00:09:17.000 --> 00:09:28.000 Grasha: So my family. The final me, my wife and children in February. 1952. As I said, I came here in December of 1951, just. 00:09:28.000 --> 00:09:37.000 A few months earlier. 00:09:37.000 --> 00:09:45.000 Rabinowitz: When you moved into Pittsburgh, what neighborhood did you move into? Grasha: Baldwin borough. 00:09:45.000 --> 00:09:54.000 Grasha: I lived there from the beginning of 52 until 1969. May or June of 1969. I moved here. 00:09:54.000 --> 00:10:04.000 Rabinowitz: Here to, uh, Trafford. Were most of your neighbors in Baldwin also Croatian. 00:10:04.000 --> 00:10:07.000 On one side was the family. 00:10:07.000 --> 00:10:21.000 Grasha: Of Polish extraction. On the other Hungarian. And I knew only 1 or 2 in. The Senate of Croatia. 00:10:21.000 --> 00:10:26.000 Rabinowitz: What about the the neighborhood where you grew up in? Buffalo. Buffalo. 00:10:26.000 --> 00:10:39.000 Grasha: Much more. Although on a comparative basis, Buffalo is a very small settlement of Croatians. But we were in in a little enclave where there were a lot more of us. 00:10:39.000 --> 00:10:44.000 Than here in. 00:10:44.000 --> 00:11:06.000 Grasha: But actually my active I was I was involved with Croatians because I was involved with the society. So not in the neighborhood per se, but my activities and that of my family was. Involved or connected with Croatians in. Other community. 00:11:06.000 --> 00:11:10.000 Rabinowitz: What was your father's occupation? 00:11:10.000 --> 00:11:12.000 Grasha: Steel mill worker. 00:11:12.000 --> 00:11:15.000 Rabinowitz: What did he do in the mill. 00:11:15.000 --> 00:11:39.000 Grasha: The last time he had? And the open art department. He was a skip. The. This vehicle that brings ore and Coke and dumps it into the. Not open the blast furnace. 00:11:39.000 --> 00:11:42.000 Rabinowitz: Blast furnace. He actually drove it or was he supervising? 00:11:42.000 --> 00:11:58.000 Grasha: No, it's an electronic, electrically controlled vehicle that you just manipulate controls in a little room and the vehicle is way out attached to the furnace. Oh, I see. 00:11:58.000 --> 00:12:04.000 Rabinowitz: He worked in the mills all his life. His father. What about your mother? Did she work outside the home? 00:12:04.000 --> 00:12:34.000 Grasha: Yes, she did. She worked for many years. Uh, she's on pension now. She worked for. Sylvania. Electric. What does she do there? Oh, I don't know what kind of job. That one time. It's something to do with soldering assembly of radios and TV. 00:12:34.000 --> 00:12:40.000 Rabinowitz: Was there any extra income in your home when you were growing up, besides your parents income. 00:12:40.000 --> 00:13:02.000 Grasha: And even that very, very limited. And of course, for how many years? I'd say beginning of 30 through I think 30 until 1936 when the effects of the war were just prior to the imminent war. Yes. When work started. I believe, 36. 00:13:02.000 --> 00:13:07.000 My father got his job. So for about five and a. 00:13:07.000 --> 00:13:13.000 Grasha: Half, five years, we were there was no income whatsoever. 00:13:13.000 --> 00:13:24.000 Rabinowitz: How many brothers and sisters did you have? I have one sister. And was she When did she start working? 00:13:24.000 --> 00:13:43.000 Grasha: She also was born and suddenly she too was born. Country. And. Well, she. She worked. We both graduated from the same high school. Three years older than she. 00:13:43.000 --> 00:13:48.000 Work in Buffalo for a while. And now she's. Then she moved. 00:13:48.000 --> 00:13:52.000 Grasha: Down to Pittsburgh, where he's been working for the Croatian Fraternal Union. 00:13:52.000 --> 00:14:00.000 She's an assistant to the editor of the publication. 00:14:00.000 --> 00:14:08.000 Rabinowitz: Did anyone else share the home with you? Immediate family, when you were young? No relatives of yours? 00:14:08.000 --> 00:14:32.000 Grasha: I think we had a boarder for a short while in Buffalo. 30. For a very short period. When you went in on that time period when the big boarding houses were in the. 00:14:32.000 --> 00:14:35.000 Rabinowitz: What? How many children do you have? 00:14:35.000 --> 00:14:38.000 And how old are they? 00:14:38.000 --> 00:14:56.000 Grasha: This. 30. Three daughters and one son. Now his daughter is still at home. The next she's 20. When the sun is 22. He's the one who just graduated from. 00:14:56.000 --> 00:15:01.000 Penn State and he's living. 00:15:01.000 --> 00:15:03.000 Grasha: I have a married daughter. 00:15:03.000 --> 00:15:09.000 Living here in. To. 00:15:09.000 --> 00:15:17.000 Rabinowitz: How have you chosen all the ones that are old enough? Have they all gone to college? Your daughter didn't go to college Girls? 00:15:17.000 --> 00:15:22.000 Grasha: None. None of the girls went. Each had a year of business. 00:15:22.000 --> 00:15:28.000 School beyond high school. Are they working? Yeah. 00:15:28.000 --> 00:15:43.000 Grasha: Well, I'll accept the married one. I have one daughter. The oldest daughter lives in Chicago. Enlist with us works for Westinghouse. 00:15:43.000 --> 00:15:53.000 Rabinowitz: What kind of job is she have? 00:15:53.000 --> 00:15:56.000 What kind of. 00:15:56.000 --> 00:16:00.000 Rabinowitz: What kind of education did you have? 00:16:00.000 --> 00:16:05.000 Grasha: High school. 00:16:05.000 --> 00:16:10.000 Rabinowitz: And your your. What about your special training? 00:16:10.000 --> 00:16:20.000 Grasha: Well, I had. Night school. Beyond that. 00:16:20.000 --> 00:16:25.000 State board examinations. 00:16:25.000 --> 00:16:37.000 Grasha: Then in the Army and various short term. 00:16:37.000 --> 00:16:43.000 Rabinowitz: You didn't find them particularly useful. 00:16:43.000 --> 00:16:54.000 Grasha: Communications for. 00:16:54.000 --> 00:17:00.000 Rabinowitz: Okay. How old were you when you had your first job? 00:17:00.000 --> 00:17:03.000 Grasha: Uh, well, I was going to high school. 00:17:03.000 --> 00:17:09.000 I was a delivery boy in a grocery. Grocery for a grocery store. 00:17:09.000 --> 00:17:17.000 Grasha: Then $2 a week. I remember at first paying for about a month. Then I graduated to about. 00:17:17.000 --> 00:17:21.000 Rabinowitz: You did that all through high school. 00:17:21.000 --> 00:17:24.000 Grasha: I was able to get that. I think I was in my second. 00:17:24.000 --> 00:17:30.000 Year in high school and. Subsequent. Is. 00:17:30.000 --> 00:17:58.000 Grasha: I had I had, I guess, fairly good marks. As a matter of fact, I was urged by my teachers to, you know, take. Test for. My family was so in such desperate financial straits. I like a darn fool. I. I to go out and get a job instead. Just college. 00:17:58.000 --> 00:18:01.000 Rabinowitz: What kind of job did you get after high school? 00:18:01.000 --> 00:18:57.000 Grasha: I wanted a man's job. I went in to follow my father's footsteps. I graduated from high school. Um, Business Administration course. But instead, I wanted a job in a steel mill, which I held for about a year and a half. Of course, after I came back from the army, I. Decided he man's job was a darn fool job. Efficient on the job training. I worked for a couple of optometrists. And by the name of. And a. 00:18:57.000 --> 00:19:04.000 It took me. 00:19:04.000 --> 00:19:15.000 Grasha: Tech supports the study and. Practical work I picked up there. I worked for them then. 00:19:15.000 --> 00:19:20.000 Until I came to Pittsburgh. 00:19:20.000 --> 00:19:24.000 Rabinowitz: The one for the CSU. 00:19:24.000 --> 00:19:29.000 Grasha: And now I'm the door we got to go to. 00:19:29.000 --> 00:19:34.000 Rabinowitz: You're doing the same kind of work that you did. 00:19:34.000 --> 00:19:54.000 Grasha: Basically. Around the office, they open up their 10th office in the Penn Center. It's a nice job. It's. It's. I say very much satisfied and happy. 00:19:54.000 --> 00:20:01.000 And it. You're the only one in the office. 00:20:01.000 --> 00:20:10.000 Grasha: I like the hours. 00:20:10.000 --> 00:20:23.000 Rabinowitz: When did your income first start to support people other than yourself? 00:20:23.000 --> 00:20:55.000 Grasha: Of course, I got married while I was still in the service and. Well, then, yes, my wife. I had a wife. And still a year and a half. Or was it two years to go in the Army? So I was sending part of my. Most of my meager salary then. But compared to nowadays, salaries nowadays. But it was sent to her. That's right. So that was we got married in 1943. 00:20:55.000 --> 00:21:02.000 Rabinowitz: About a year and a half. What? When you worked in the steel mill after high school, did you contribute to your family then? 00:21:02.000 --> 00:21:44.000 Grasha: After high school? Well, yes, it was when? I gave most a good portion of my. I started working. 00:21:44.000 --> 00:21:52.000 Rabinowitz: What's which job do you remember as being the best one that you've ever had? 00:21:52.000 --> 00:22:00.000 Grasha: Well, I like the. Work at the Fraternal Union. 00:22:00.000 --> 00:22:07.000 Similar to this chat challenge. 00:22:07.000 --> 00:22:17.000 Grasha: If it could have remained fraternal. And then. Work itself. And my duties. 00:22:17.000 --> 00:22:23.000 As I said, were a challenge. And I. Matter of fact. 00:22:23.000 --> 00:22:50.000 Grasha: I suppose that was so engrossed and in love that to the detriment of my own family and that that financially I would say. But. I never. I never had time for. For my children and. But I suppose every every meal. Actually, when you're up in my age and you look back over the years. 00:22:50.000 --> 00:22:56.000 And you say, Well, it could have been. Maybe you didn't. 00:22:56.000 --> 00:22:58.000 Grasha: Stand looking in retrospect. 00:22:58.000 --> 00:23:05.000 He would say. Devote more time to my family and children. I suppose. I'm certainly. 00:23:05.000 --> 00:23:06.000 Grasha: Not unique in that. 00:23:06.000 --> 00:23:12.000 Respect. All breadwinners or heads of families feel. 00:23:12.000 --> 00:23:17.000 Rabinowitz: But what years? What years were you working for the. 00:23:17.000 --> 00:23:24.000 Grasha: 20 years, nine being say, 19, beginning of 52 through 71. 00:23:24.000 --> 00:23:36.000 Rabinowitz: And you were the junior water director the whole time. 00:23:36.000 --> 00:24:42.000 Grasha: As I say, I find very great satisfaction in my present job and that the the there's no more tensions and. Politics and. Completely devoid of that kind of. Handicap. Myself. Just. That, but without any extraneous pulls and fights. I like to work. Two is it took me a few years to get back to where I felt that I. You know. Confident and competent. Have to be now since I run the office by myself for a year and a half, I worked. The company's offices under a manager. 00:24:42.000 --> 00:24:56.000 You could turn into. I needed it for a while. Mean. 00:24:56.000 --> 00:25:00.000 Grasha: This kind of business is. 00:25:00.000 --> 00:25:08.000 Satisfactory to the. 00:25:08.000 --> 00:25:13.000 Rabinowitz: What was the worst job you ever remember having? 00:25:13.000 --> 00:26:13.000 Grasha: Well, in the steel mill, they're awfully dirty and hot and dirty jobs. Very, very strenuous. Down in underground passages in those days, the. These open hearts had a subsidiary department which burned coal and produced gas, which then was forced to run through little tunnels to the open arts. And you had to periodically clean those little subterranean tunnels. Then the accumulation of red hot soot on hands and knees and working on. Or or ten. My first job there was tearing down the open heart breaking burns out after a while. Weeks or months of usage and it has to be torn down. And a new fire break put up. 00:26:13.000 --> 00:26:18.000 This film will certainly have a more strenuous. 00:26:18.000 --> 00:26:20.000 Grasha: It was all right for a young fellow back. 00:26:20.000 --> 00:26:24.000 In those years. 00:26:24.000 --> 00:26:33.000 Grasha: Like if I didn't have this optician background in the background, I would probably been forced to look for something nothing but laborer. 00:26:33.000 --> 00:26:39.000 Job four years ago. 00:26:39.000 --> 00:26:54.000 Rabinowitz: Who is the highest paid, job paying job you ever held. Let's put this aside. So you took a pay cut when you came back to. 00:26:54.000 --> 00:27:18.000 Grasha: Now. Thank God I don't need that kind of money. I don't make it, nor do I need it. My last mortgage was the son's college tuition. Well, I can't make annual trips to the Far East or anything like that, but it's adequate. 00:27:18.000 --> 00:27:21.000 Rabinowitz: Does your wife work outside the home? 00:27:21.000 --> 00:27:28.000 Grasha: No, she does. She did for a while, but. 00:27:28.000 --> 00:27:31.000 Rabinowitz: You got vegetables? 00:27:31.000 --> 00:27:36.000 Grasha: She had everything. Potatoes. Corn. Beans. Peas. Red. 00:27:36.000 --> 00:27:38.000 Rabinowitz: Wow, that's a lot of work. 00:27:38.000 --> 00:27:49.000 Grasha: Yes, but she enjoys it. Yeah. Yeah, I do that. She'd rather work. 00:27:49.000 --> 00:27:59.000 Rabinowitz: Okay. You said a little bit about your reasons. The reasons why you came to the Pittsburgh area. Do you want to go into those a little bit? 00:27:59.000 --> 00:28:17.000 Grasha: When there. There's only one reason I had I got elected to the board and the society and that is a full time position, a job. Had to come down. And of course, it was it was also an improvement in my in my financial condition. 00:28:17.000 --> 00:28:28.000 That it was considerably more. But making him. 00:28:28.000 --> 00:28:34.000 Grasha: Just a young man just starting out. So I needed all that. And then I was very I'd always been active and interested. 00:28:34.000 --> 00:28:39.000 In the society. So this was. 00:28:39.000 --> 00:29:39.000 Grasha: Double pay. In effect getting paid for doing what I. Anyway, I've been a lodge secretary up there. And not only that, but helped run a Croatian club. So that took up a lot, much more of my time than I should have been giving to them. At the expense of one retracting that or subtracting that from my family. So at least when we came down here then it was a full time job.
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