Here is a photo of my cousin, Lynn Ann Hughes Hailey, my sister Melissa, and me in our Easter finery after church on Easter probably in 1970. It wasn’t 1971 because it snowed. The photo was taken in the front yard of my parents’ house on School Street in the Grassy Island section of Olyphant, PA.
To our backs School Street meets Lemko Street. West Palm Street was not yet built. Take note of the dump in the upper left corner. This was beyond the present-day Sanko Drive. The kids used to refer to this dump as “the Red Rooster”. I’m not sure why. My great-uncle John, my grandfather, and my father used to call it “the rogg dump”. I’m not sure why. I think that rogg may be Anthracite Brogue for rock. Sometimes k is pronounced as gg as in “bicyggle”.
The rogg dump was atop what was once St. Patrick’s Church Cemetery. It was composed mostly of shale and other waste from the coal mines. The slope toward the Fern Hill side was not as steep as the ones in the picture. My friend Bob and I climbed it several times. We did not have a camera. I remember being able to see very far, but don’t recall any landmarks that we were able to see.
The Red Rooster was between Grassy Island and Fern Hill. There was a smaller rogg dump between Fern Hill and Smoketown.
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