[PRCo] WORKING IN THE MILL AND GROWING UP

Tue Oct 22 17:44:20 EDT 2013

It was my first shift on "night turn" (midnight-8 a.m.)  

There was another summer job in a hospital.  Many of the other 'nursing assistants' working the VA during daytime or evening, and spent the night sleeping on the payroll at St. Francis Hospital.  Best part about this job was that could take 64 trolley to Oakland and 77/54 trolley to Lawrenceville.  Also, it quickly taught me that I did not inherit my grandfather's medical gene. (thank God for the Rich Allman's of this world)  Instead, the lesson from dealing with the CTA fare structure was that perhaps I inherited my other grandfather's finance gene.  

As other's have said, many of these work experiences were lessons on what NOT to do.   

> From: dwightlong at verizon.net
> To: pittsburgh-railways at mailman.dementix.org
> Date: Tue, 22 Oct 2013 16:44:42 -0400
> Subject: Re: [PRCo] WORKING IN THE MILL AND GROWING UP
> 
> 
> John
> 
> In my summer job in the steel mill the amount of work for the laborers decreased progressively from day through swing to graveyard shift.  On the latter the labor gang primarily slept wherever they could, usually on racks in the storeroom, with one person designated as a lookout in case the boss came by looking for someone to do some menial task, like rolling out a barrel of lube oil for the rolling mills.  It became obvious early on that to "rock the boat" would not endear one to the old hands.
> 
> Dwight
>   ----- Original Message ----- 
>   From: John Swindler 
>   To: Western PA Trolley discussion 
>   Sent: Tuesday, October 22, 2013 1:20 PM
>   Subject: Re: [PRCo] WORKING IN THE MILL AND GROWING UP
> 
> 
> 
>    
>   Also a summer at Homestead Works where I saw how some American workers 'game the system' to avoid working.  ("you boys better just sit down for next seven hours.  If you keep working like this, you will ruin the incentive on this job by time you go back to school")
>    
> 
>    
>   > From: fwschneider at comcast.net
>   > Date: Tue, 22 Oct 2013 11:48:30 -0400
>   > To: pittsburgh-railways at mailman.dementix.org
>   > Subject: Re: [PRCo] WORKING IN THE MILL AND GROWING UP
>   > 
>   > That is something a lot of kids do not get today … the opportunity to work in the mill or factory and GROW UP.   You got it in the coke ovens.   I had it for three years in the army and then helping working myself through college in a local factory and feeding the fireboxes of locomotives on the Strasburg Rail Road (I actually had 119 months of service on the railroad).   Swindler paid for his whole college experience dodging L support poles in Chicago with CTA buses.  Ed Skuchas remembered Lukens Steel … guess that means the Coatesville plant (as in the knock-knock joke that Coates villa wear better than the pants vill).  
>   > 
>   > I am afraid that too many kids today think that they are entitled and should not need to get dirty.
>   > 
>   > 
>   > On Oct 22, 2013, at 7:18 AM, DF Cramer wrote:
>   > 
>   > > Many of you know I put myself through undergraduate school working two summers at a beehive coke facility located off Mahoning Creek just north of Templeton (on the Allegheny River). We were a captive facility of Sharon Steel. The devastation to the environment was severe. I once brought some classmates over at night during the winter term and as they looked down from the road above they replied: "You worked in Hell!"  That is probably a great way to describe what it was like.
>   > > By the way, I made great money; over six thousand dollars over two summers. (73 & 74)  The coke yard closed shortly thereafter and nothing remains. The environment has recovered.
>   > > 
>   > > Dennis F. Cramer 
>   > > http://home.windstream.net/dfc1/
>   > > 
>   > >> From: eskuchas at comcast.net
>   > >> Date: Tue, 22 Oct 2013 07:07:31 -0400
>   > >> To: pittsburgh-railways at mailman.dementix.org
>   > >> Subject: Re: [PRCo] Burning Leaves--and Coal
>   > >> 
>   > >> Back in the 70's, the Clairton works had an open house. First time in ten years. I signed up and went. We did go next to the coke batteries. They were tight with little leakage, and they had semi-automated capturing devices when they emptied a section of the battery. Doors removed with pusher on one side and capturing unit on receiving end. Various ducts and fans to suck off the vapors. 
>   > >> The bus taking us through that part of the plant went by the chemical processing plant where our guide pointed out the chemicals that they can recover and sell. Also mentioned that the chemicals were nasty. 
>   > >> The other perspective that I had was how bare the hill side was opposite the plant. We were over by the barge unloader and had a clear view. 
>   > >> 
>   > >> Ed S
>   > >> 
>   > >> Sent from my iPhone
>   > >> 
>   > >>> On Oct 21, 2013, at 10:53 PM, "Dwight Long" <dwightlong at verizon.net> wrote:
>   > >>> 
>   > >>> 
>   > >>> Herb
>   > >>> 
>   > >>> But Irvin works is not a primary producer but rather a rolling mill (as you said) and so would not generate the "fire and brimstone" that characterized a primary steel producer.
>   > >>> 
>   > >>> I went by Clairton on a train in July and did not notice any smoke at all, just some condensed water vapor.  I think the coking processes are so contained these days that very little emissions emanate from it.  Besides environmental concerns, the steelmakers have learned that the effluents from the coke making process are valuable by products that need to be trapped and sold.  The days of the beehive coke ovens that spewed all the byproducts into the atmosphere are long gone.
>   > >>> 
>   > >>> Dwight
>   > >>> ----- Original Message ----- 
>   > >>> From: Herb Brannon 
>   > >>> To: Western PA Trolley discussion 
>   > >>> Sent: Monday, October 21, 2013 10:41 PM
>   > >>> Subject: Re: [PRCo] Burning Leaves--and Coal
>   > >>> 
>   > >>> 
>   > >>> Bob R,
>   > >>> It still had that "orange glow" when I first moved here in 1972. Plus, when
>   > >>> atmospheric conditions were right, it smelled like fire & brimstone,
>   > >>> everywhere. Even today, on  humid days, I still smell the "fire &
>   > >>> brimstone" coming from the Irvin Works just over the hill (on Camp Hollow
>   > >>> Rd) to the south-east of my place.
>   > >>> 
>   > >>> Contrary to popular opinion steel is not dead in Pittsburgh. The Clairton
>   > >>> Works still produces coke as it always did, the Edgar Thompson Works makes
>   > >>> primary steel, the Irvin Works produces rolled steel and the relatively new
>   > >>> Mckeesport Tubular Works (old National Works, now reopened) makes tubular
>   > >>> products for the Marcellus Shale drilling industry. So the sulphur and fi
>   > >> 
>   > >> 
>   > >> 
>   > >> 
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