. >> one member of that workforce, david's father, john stawovy.ows, working the fields, and attending school with the rest of the reduction kids at this one-room schoolhouse. by then, american workers are starting to enjoy the economic advances that will bring the era of company towns to a close -- rising worker incomes, mass-produced cars, widely available home financing. they get a taste of a better life. >> oh, absolutely. workers have a higher standard of living because of their union contracts. they actually get paid time off. they get a little bit of a pension. >> in 1936, a larger garbage plant opens in pittsburgh. american reduction closes the plant here, and reduction becomes a ghost town. when reduction closed, what happened to the people living in those houses? >> people were devastated. that was their livelihood. >> the stawovy family dairy, nevertheless, thrives. in 1948, david's father is newly married and looking for a starter home. he approaches the american reduction company to purchase one of the houses in the old neighborhood. >