Additional Excerpts: The Roller - Funerals - Smart Dumb Guys
Good Workers
You know, Janos, it's funny how some guys were good at certain jobs and yet couldn't learn other jobs no matter what they did. I mean, look at me, they said I'd never make a lever man and hell, they were right. I couldn't handle that goddamn job no matter what I did. You had to have eyes in the back of your head. I mean like there was so much to remember.
Them roll shop guys musta stayed up nights tryin' to think up ways to confuse us. Had an uncle once who was a roll turner over there, name of Earl Cardinal. He was in the Navy durin' the First War, and damn if he didn't join up again in World War II at the age of 46. When I asked him why he went in the service again he says,
"I just wanted to get out of this goddamn place."
Remember the time I was on the back rougher and we were rollin' 15" channel and I left the table up? Then you ran a bar under the table. We lost a couple hours cleanin' up the mess. They useta say it cost $1500 an hour for down time and that was 20 years ago, so I cost the company three grand. Got disciplined two days off for that, after that I told 'em to take me off the damn tables and let me work as a guidesetter. 'Course I'd still spell off once in a while.
Hey, Janos, how come you never got off the rougher? Hell, you had more time than most of the guidesetters. Oh yeah, I forgot—bad back.
Most guys were too small to set guides anyway. You had to be a big guy to handle some of the heavier guides. Some of the damn things weighed over a hundred pounds. Lotta weight to manhandle, even for me.
Hell, I remember back in '55 when they hired all those new guys. Some of them were settin' guides after only a few months, 'cause most of the guys with time didn't want the job. There was that big kid we called Lil' Abner. He was one of them guys come down from up around the Blue Mountain, bunch of Dutchmen. We called 'em Ridge Runners. They was always huntin' deer out of season. Farm boys like me, good workers, too. Trouble was every once in a while one of the young ones wouldn't show up, then you'd find out he'd been arrested for F & B. Judge'd let 'em out. Wouldn't do right by the girl and he'd get slapped in the cooler again. Company was good to 'em though, always let 'em come back to work.
Janos, you ever notice it was only the Dutchmen got arrested for F and B, you know, Fornication and Bastardy? You can't tell me the other guys never knocked up their girl friends. I think it musta had somethin' to do with bein' Catholic. Priest made 'em get married. Right, Janos?
Talkin' about good workers, I gotta admit Janos, you couldn't beat the coal miners. Some of 'em come from as far away as Ashland. Had to leave at 4 in the mornin' to make it for day turn. Them guys never complained, never had a cold or a headache, never was too hot or too cold, all they did was work like hell. Didn't laugh or joke around much either. Lotta them was Welsh, Polack, too.
Asked Jack Pritchard one time why he didn't just move to Bethlehem 'stead of drivin' 80 miles each way. He says, "I'm a coalminer, my father was a coalminer and his father afore him. The mines'll come back and I'm gonna be there."
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