"The Window:  Silence" is a fictionalized account of life in a small rural soft coal mining town in western Pennsylvania.  It is April, 1918.  Holy Week for the Orthodox Christians has just begun with the observance of Palm Sunday.
Life for Central European immigrants who came to work the soft coal mines was harsh until World War I began and the need for coal and coke to operate the steel mills in western Pennsylvania caused wages to rise and benefits to improve.  Strikes were numerous.  Riots occurred frequently.  The Company Police force; the right-hand of the owners sought to return the mines to a time when the owners ruled and controlled with complete authority.
Anna and Stefan are two immigrants who live in town and are given the task by The Committee of watching who does what and who goes where.  Nothing comes in or out of town without Anna and Stefan knowing and alerting the other immigrants.  Their attention is focused upon a house at the edge of town serving as a hideout for gamblers and thieves and the center of racketeering, extortion, prostitution and bootlegging.
As a ten year old, I often accompanied my uncle and my grandfather as they visited old friends who still lived in these once booming coal mining towns.  It is the early 1950's when my grandfather who is dying of cancer decides to visit Anna and Stefan for the last time.  Memories of those visits and hours of stories told to me by my grandfather on quiet summer afternoons are relived.  It is during one of these summer afternoon story sessions that my grandfather shares the story of a terrible tragedy; a Pennsylvania State Policeman was murdered one rainy night when he and another patrolman were sent to investigate a robbery.  I remember my grandfather crying and then saying in Slavonic:  "Janik, times were hard...times were bad!"

The Window...Silence

Dr. John R. Hranitz

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Books by Dr. John R. Hranitz

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Dr. John R. Hranitz. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Window...Silence