But with so few folks alive who knew them at all, it's helpful to hear his recollections of the pair.

We were nei- neighbors, good neighbors, you know, and friends.

And, and, you know, they all worked in the mines, so they're all buddies.

They were very quiet people, you know.

They...

I mean, Lizzie talked more than they, than Curly did.

Curly would say hello and, but he, you know, I think he had a...

In Ty's memory, Curly's a nice fella and a quiet man, but he also has a sense that Curly had a certain steeliness about him, something he relates to Curly's work as a powder man.

Now, clearly these recollections are tinged with nostalgia, but Ty also remembers the rough edges of South Wellington back then.The mining jobs have disappeared, and a lot of folks are experiencing hard times.

If people know that you have money at, when you're in South Wellington, you know, they would try to lean on you for some of it.

[laughs] You know, if you went down for a beer at The Cassidy, they'd be saying, "Come on, buy me a beer," or whatever.

And there was a lot of guys that had alcohol problems those days, and, 'cause, uh, you know, the miners would g- like a good beer, or a good round of beers.

And there was, you know, you could get, uh, moonshine down in, uh, Cassidy.

Guys would make it down there, and so you could trade.

If you bought a bottle of s- what they call store-bought whiskey, they would trade you two bottles of moonshine for one bottle of store-bought.

Here's how Ty remembers the old store.