economic tsunami

[MurphOnMillerAve]

I did some work on the stepford wives

Did they respond to you?

[HONDO74]

This is from the Firesign Theater "I Think We're all Bozo's on this Bus" from the early 1970's

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAQCuLl2I8M

"The Future Fair, a fair for all and no fare/fair to anyone"

The first of April is the day we remember what we are the other 364 days of the year. Mark Twain

[robert.]

I did some work on the stepford wives

Did they respond to you?

No. During the remake. I helped with some antique furniture in fairleigh Dickinson and a country club on long island.

[MurphOnMillerAve]

I did some work on the stepford wives

Did they respond to you?

No. During the remake. I helped with some antique furniture in fairleigh Dickinson and a country club on long island.

It appears as though you have had a wide range of experiences in life, Robert. I guess that is why you are so interesting in conversation.
What would you say was the best work experience of your life? Which was the worst (if I may ask) ?

[robert.]

Worst ever was a 2 day jaunt to Hartford Conn. I took 3 guys with me. To remove some antique walnut showroom cabinets. They were being removed from a fur coat store. It was a family owned store form the early 1900's. Each cabinet had 2 etched glass doors. One cabinet could hold maybe 10 fur coats. They were 3 cabinets then a mirrored niche then 3 more cabinets. Both sides of the store had this set up. I thought it would be a piece of cake. boy was i wrong. Who ever built them. Built them to survive a bomb. Plus they had such detailed molding that removal was difficult. For the good part of a century this store had made or repaired fur coats.
When we started to tear apart these cabinets dust,dirt and fur feel from ever seam. 100 years worth of it. In the guys back shop room. He had large buffing wheels made fabric. They would buff out the hides for a nice uniform thickness . This process only added to a 100 years of dust. When i checked into the downtown hotel. I had the appeal of a coal miner. I did find 3 packs of Parliament cigarettes behind those cabinets. to bad i wasn't into eBay then. Unopened 1930's smokes might have a value. I'll look and see if i have some Polaroids of our finished job. We made a nice sculptor display from the cabinets.

[MurphOnMillerAve]

Very interesting story from your life's journey, Robert. Thanks for such a nice reply to my inquiry.

I know when my worst work experience was. It was also my best, in a way....
It was the Summer I worked as a common (not skilled for specific steel-making tasks) laborer, who along with a small team of other older teenagers had to descend into a tunnel that ran under the "Soaking Pits," part of the "hot rolling" process, which occupied the space under the holes that received hot ingots along the production line in the Rolling Mill section of the steel-making process.

It was so hot in that underground oven that even protective clothing did little to keep us safe; also, it was so hot that if you did not sit for the required 15 minutes after each 15min. working session of holding a firehose to splatter rats and using rakes and shovels to skim grunge off the cave-like walls under the pits, you were fired for not obeying the sit-down rule.

After a Summer of that torture, I exited the tunnel for the final time, removed my metal-toed workboots, took off the protective clothing which we were supposed to return to the locker-room, threw it all down on the ground, just outside the buildings, looked up at the bright sun that felt cool compared to the hell-tunnel, and said aloud, to God, (exact quote, here) "Lord, I am never going to have to work like that again!" Then, I hopped onto my brand-new Honda motorcycle and zipped away.

Later, I collected my last check. That final check in a Summer's earnings made it possible for me to return to college to get my B.A. degree. That's why that job was also my best job, because I knew I'd never have to do such work again and could become a white-collar worker for the rest of my life, which I did, more or less.

When the socio-economic life of my hometown collapsed, I did not fall with it. Rather, I had emigrated to NYC, after a teaching jaunt in England, France, Italy, and Austria, and lived happily and prosperously ever afterward, unlike several of my high school classmates who had made the unfortunate decision to follow their fathers into work at the steel mills.

These pictures show a fraction of the steel mill where I slaved away in that pit, under a "Soaking Pit" (see photo 1), liquid steel being made ready to pour, the entire mill complex just down the hill from my childhood neighborhood, and a view into the property where part of the steel mill once stood, empty now...

[G3750]

This won't get me any friends but I don't understand why "we" are always expecting the people with a lot of money to give it away. I think what is really meant is for them to give it to the "we" mentioned earlier which probably means "me". The argument is made that those with a lot of money didn't do anything to deserve it. Of course that is just an opinion. Teachers are not usually considered to be very "well-to-do" however many persons in this area consider teachers to be rich when the average teachers pay is compared to the average area residents pay. I am a retired teacher and have always considered our family to be upper lower class. This idea of using the money of someone else for the puposes that "we" want is part of the "give back" idea that permeates to days younger and early middle aged people. Now for the real self-killer. IMHO these are communist ideas.
Thank you for your time.

Where's that big THUMBS UP emoji?

Absolutely dead-on, Roger.

George

[rogruth]

Thank you, George. And a sincere from me.