I have heard quite a lot about the men who stayed in the `Barics' all the week and would not come home until Saturday afternoon. They came down on the Ffestiniog Railway to Penrhyn or Minffordd and if there was no train on the Cambrian they would walk home, and they had to do the same early Monday morning.
They all had a square basket with a rod through two loops to close the lid with their weekly rations, but very often the rats would help themselves and they were big rats as well coming up from underground as there was only pieces of candles for them to eat there.
The women used to tell the men off for bringing fleas back with them and it was a wonder that they did not bring something worse living in those conditions. An old wag would say that the fleas would take the beds out in the Rhosydd for them to be aired.
It was very hard for the women too as they had to be alone all the week with the children and of course the children would only see their father over the week-end. Although we complain today about things being difficult, it must be better than it was when we were young.
The Quarry was a very jolly place to work in. We were like a big family, always helping one another. When you wanted help to lift someting heavy, as there were only cranes underground then, we would shout `BANDO' - that was short for Band of Hope and there was one man always shouting `Bando' and of course he was called Bando and even today all the family are called Bandos after all these years.
Another man started work so the men he worked with told him to be careful when he was talking as he would soon have a nickname, he said that he was too much of a scholar for them - he was called "scholar" after that! Another one always complained that his feet were cold and `Robin Traed Oer' (Robin Cold Feet) he was called.
When the young boys started in the Quarry they used to mark their nose with a pin until it bled and then they would put machine oil in it. It was not a nice thing to do but after that you were a man.
I heard my father saying about Richard Williams, Ty Fron who worked in the Oakeley. He was waiting at the mouth of the level for a partner to walk the rails with him. They walked in twos - one on each rail and they would hold each others coat as they walked along, as it was so dark. It was almost dark and they had only a candle in a cornbeef tin to give them light, the other man asked, as it was a Monday morning, "who was preaching with you yesterday", and Richard Williams said "they called him Spurgeon and a very poor one he was" and when they came out in the light the other man, who had been walking with him WAS Spurgeon.
`CELCIO' (saving) that is the only place I think that it was done, as most of the men were on some kind of a contract. There was a chance to make a little bit more than the guaranteed wages and as the extra came every month there was a chance for `celcio' (saving), that meant they would not tell their wife of the little extra they had made and they would have a little more pocket money. I think most of the men gave it to the wife in the end but it was a thing that was always done and they had to keep it up.
One old woman in Tanygrisiau went to the shed and there was an old coat there that belonged to her husband and she found his `celc' a ten shilling note and she hid the coat and when her husband asked her where the old coat was she said that she had burned it. They had a good laugh about it.
Its a pity we dont get more laughs like that today. I think we are too serious, a laugh does you good.
Another one I knew who lived in Harlech , he liked his drink and he had hidden a few half crowns in the wall and his wife had seen him and she changed them for pennies. I'm sure old Ned was mad. My mother had made a Christmas parcel for her brother who worked in the same Quarry as myself, he worked in a different shed and I had to give the parcel to a man that worked near him but he would not take the parcel off him as he thought they were playing a joke on him and they opened the parcel and ate all the mince pies and all that there was to eat, but there was a pair of socks for my cousin in as well and he had to take them home and he made his wife go to see my mother and apologise.