Interview with Ernie Johnson

Audio recording and transcript of Ernie Johnson's 1979 interview with Bernard McNicholl for the Coal Tyee History Project. Johnson shares details about both his and his father's experience working as coal miners in the Nanaimo area. Johnson shares his memories of the Vancouver Island Coal Miners' Strike and the Oscar explosion. He talks about going to school in Nanaimo, which he left at 14 to start working in the coal mining industry. He shares his father's experience of the the 1918 Protection Island mining disaster, which killed 16 miners. Johnson talks about his various jobs in the industry, including working on the picking tables, at the blacksmith shop, and looking after the mining railway. He explains how miners and their families paid for and received medical care, and also touches on union organizing and safety conditions in the mines. Reflecting on his time in Nanaimo, Johnson comments on transportation, social activities, sports, church life, politics, and ethnic groups in the community. He shares his impressions of Nanaimo's red-light district, which he used to deliver telegrams to as a teenager. Johnson closes the interview talking about his hardware store business and the building it is located in.