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3 £/ctrfe ; ; / < living than many industrial, commercial or educational wwkers did. I think we would be classed in the well off category." The Elliotts lived in a twostorey four bedroom home in the city's east end. "The house was heated with a coal-fired furnace located in the basement. This basement ran full length of the house under the kitchen to the living room. "The basement was accessed by a stairway that ran under the stairway that led to the bedroom wing upstairs. The basement contained my mother's washing machine, a double laundry tub, a great workbench, a large closet for keeping preserves my mother would make and of course, a fairly large sealed room to receive and store the coal. "The basement also had an entrance from the outside with steps. The living and dining room floors were oak hardwood and the kitchen floor was covered with battleship linoleum wrhich would never wear out. There were beautiful built in cabinets around the kitchen sink and a separate four burner electric stove and oven. All in all we didn't lack for very much." While the railroad people handled the Depression years fairly well many people in the neighborhood and throughout the city had some tough times, he said. The Finkles with 14 children in the family struggled along with the rest. "Only one of us was born in the hospital," he laughed. "Nobody had money. We certainly didn't." A year after he began working for his father, Finkle left the city to work for an electrical contrac"Two or three days after the pay peritor in Sudbury. od we had lots of work. But after a week "I was only getting about 15 hours and a half later, that business too would work a week with my father. I needed to dry up because nobody had any money find more work and when I got that job except for them. "They're the ones who got their homes in Sudbury, I got more hours and I made wired. Their homes had more rooms that more money. I was able to send home enough money so that that year my famineeded wiring, more fixtures, switches, ly back home here could have their first sidelights and so on. Very little came in between those railway pay days," recalled good Christmas in a while," he said. Ernest Finkle Sr. suffered a stroke and Finkle. retired from the business operations, Former Belleville resident Jim Elliott, which were taken over by his two sons, who now lives in Tillsonburg, used to Don and Ernie Jr. both of whom had work at Coleman Street's Corbin Lock joined the family business in the early Company. He recalled Finkle Electric as 1940s. Following the death of their being the only firm the lock company father, the two brothers became co-partwould use for any electrical work it ners until Don's death about three years required. ago. Elliott's father was a CNR engineer and Today, the family business continues was paid every two weeks. to operate under the partnership of the Reflecting on the standard of living in younger generation of the Finkles, at its the city at the time, he said: Pinnacle Street location. "I believe railroad workers, especially Contact Benzie Sangma at: engineers, enjoyed a higher standard of bsangma@cogeco.ca