This is me, Iosif Gotlib (third from left) with his colleagues. We were photographed after returning from flight. The photo was taken for the bulletin board newspaper of our depot in Chanyzh in 1962.
I went to work there as a locomotive operator in 1946. I worked as electric locomotive operator all my life.In 1950 I was sent to work in a depot of Lanovtsy station [360 km from Kiev] where I became chief of the depot. In 1952 I received a dwelling in Lanovtsy and my family moved in with me. Locomotives were gradually replaced with electric locomotives. I finished a locomotive school with honors and they sent me to a depot in Chanyzh station [460 km from Kiev]. My family moved to Chanyzh with me. Our children went to school and my wife and I went to work. I liked spending my weekends with the family. We went for walks, to the cinema and theater. We didn't celebrate any Jewish or Russian religious holidays at home. We celebrated birthdays and Soviet holidays. In the morning we went to a parade and then Antonina arranged a festive dinner at home. We often invited friends and colleagues. We traveled on our summer vacations. I could have free railroad tickets for the family and we traveled a lot across the country. We traveled to the south and north of the USSR and we liked tourist trips.
I became a pensioner in 1977, but I continued to work in the depot. Firstly, it was hard to live without working. It seemed to me I would die if I quit my job. Besides, it was hard to live on a pension. I had to support my daughter. I got a job of a track dispatcher. It was an interesting and responsible job and I liked it. I worked in the depot until 1992. Only after I had my first stroke my family talked me out of going to work.
