The Shayka Family, about 1922.  My Dad, George, is the lil' fellow on Grandma's lap.  Sister Catherine is next to Grandpop, and Al, Harry, and Marty are standing in front.  Still to come were another brother, Steve, and baby sister Esther.  The family lived in Blakely - Olyphant, near Scranton, Pennsylvania.   Grandpop Alexander was a coal miner, an immigrant from the Ukraine.  He came to America about 1900, and after getting settled, married Grandma Sophie, and they started a family.  I never met Alexander, he passed away from the coal miners disease, Black Lung, before I was born, and only slightly remember Sophie.  Dad told me a little about his life when he was a kid, but I learned more from his sister, Esther.  They were just working people with little money, and often faced hard times, but they did 'OK', she said.  I suppose that would describe a lot of families in those days.

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