A few CVRR pictures and some other related pictures....2

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Same place it did about 6-7 years ago when we had the last good sized snows. We've been here before. You remember when you had to put the water wings around the house and paddle around NJ until the flooding subsided....

But wait! There's more on the way and some serious cold set to arrive next Mon.

Philadelphia's street dept. dumped into the river. We had 3 storms back to back to back. all on Saturdays. They had to move the mounds of snow somewhere. So the Mayor said " dump in into the river. Day and night for a few days. They dumped it over bridges. Then came a small thaw. Followed by a large rain. Guess what. That snow dumped into the rives. Became ice dams around bridge pilings and the water backed up and up. Several divers came in with dynamite. Boom went the ice dams. Not before the flood damage was done.[/quote]

I do remember that, Good idea, bad execution

[Rufus T. Firefly]

[Rufus T. Firefly]

[Rufus T. Firefly]

[MurphOnMillerAve]

The bottom postcard demonstrates scenes which were like that up and down both sides of the Monongahela, Youghiogheny, and Allegheny rivers which were tributaries to the Ohio River, all of which supported an entire lifestyle there , which I can claim as one big hometown to me.

Their fires lot up the night skies. It was never really dark at night for us, nor was the snow ever really white for long .

My folks and I worked at National Tubeworks of McKeesport, PA . The steel mills gave us livelihoods , houses, vibrant parish church communities , and for those of a particular mindset and motivation, a college education .

All of it is disappeared , now, replaced by parking lots , for the most part, even before Covid.

Roger can tell you his experiences in this regard , too, as he and I have that background in common.

[rogruth]

I never worked in a mill as Murph did but our communities were very similar.
I know that what made our area unique would be blamed by some as leading to the end of our world as we know it.
For Murph and I our part of the world died sometime ago with the closing of the mills, factories, mines and practically all other industry in the area.
My hometown population is now one quarter what it was in the 1970s. I'm sure that to some this is a good thing but not for those that live there.

[chuck]

When my wife and I first were married we lived in Springwells Park. This was originally a Ford company development and has since been designated a National Historic site. The apartment was about 1 mile from Gate 9 of the Rouge complex. The slabbing mill was the closest steel working component. On evenings with a low cloud deck you could see the sky glowing orange/pink as they moved hot rolled still between the buildings that made up the mill. About twice a year there would be a derailment of the hot melt train between the furnaces and wherever they were taking the molten steel. Then the whole sky lit up yellow and you could hear the sirens of the fire equipment moving in to deal with the mess. This was in the early 80's.

The complex is still running but parts of the operation have been turned over to outsiders. Currently a division of Cleveland Cliffs steel operations. They (Ford) still make cars (actually pick up trucks and lots of them) and major parts for other cars but the number of employees is way down (both auto and steel). The Rouge truck plant looks more like a high tech clean room than an auto assemble line. If you took someone that had worked in the plant back in the late 60's and showed them the 2020 edition they would wonder where they were.

Former Douglas Aircraft illustrator/artist has a YouTube channel "Celebrating Aviation" which I highly recommend. In a recent video he touched on how much of the aircraft manufacturing that once dominated southern California has disappeared along with all of the jobs associated with it. The industry had been a birthplace for a large number of aircraft manufactures, Douglas, Consolidated/Vultee (Convair), North American, Northrup, Lockheed). Things expanded rapidly during WW-2 and on through the cold war. Then the mergers and consolidations began. No commercial aircraft are made in the area, only one commercial aviation maker is still in existence in the US (Boeing) and its plants are not in CA.

Things/times change. You either adapt and survive or you disappear. We still manufacture a lot of stuff. It's just that most of the work is now being done by machines. Machines that don't get tired, don't need vacations or sick leave, and they generally don't make mistakes unless the human programming them does.

We still need people but we don't need nearly as many. It may be time to start looking at cutting back the work week from ~40 hours to ~35. Maybe four 9 hour days with either Monday's or Fridays off?

[robert.]

Most places do 35 hours a week already. That gets them around providing health insurance. yes you can still find 40 hours a week. Just not at walmart Lowes, Home Depot or many of the grocery stores.

[rogruth]

Chuck,
I do understand what and why these changes are happening but it is very hard to accept that things you enjoyed and cherished are gone and will not return.

[chuck]

I do understand what and why these changes are happening but it is very hard to accept that things you enjoyed and cherished are gone and will not return.

I understand that it's important to remember the past and when appropriate cherish it. It's very dangerous to try to live in the past or to try to recreate it. The more I learn about it, the less enthralled I am with it. The good old days were more old than good. Just because we didn't know about a lot of the less savory aspects of the old days doesn't mean we should ignore them now. I will try to take what good I can from it but I will always be wary of the stuff that really wasn't so great.

I am beginning to wonder if all those leaded gas fumes we breathed as kids are in some part responsible for much of the societal craziness we are currently experiencing? BTW, the lead substitutes aren't exactly safe. They are still heavy metals, just not as toxic as lead.

[chuck]

Most places do 35 hours a week already. That gets them around providing health insurance. yes you can still find 40 hours a week. Just not at walmart Lowes, Home Depot or many of the grocery stores.

I mean the "official full work week" becomes 35 hours, aka you qualify for benefits. To do other wise is just running another scam.

[rogruth]

I have no interest in living in the past but am a bit concerned that towns that once were prosperous, viable and were places for families to live and prosper. Today families just seem to sleep in the same house. Often not even at the same time. Many things were not better then.
I would not want to live those times again.
I need to stop this. You know what I mean. More words won't help any.

[rogruth]

Most places do 35 hours a week already. That gets them around providing health insurance. yes you can still find 40 hours a week. Just not at walmart Lowes, Home Depot or many of the grocery stores.

I mean the "official full work week" becomes 35 hours, aka you qualify for benefits. To do other wise is just running another scam.

I agree. I understand that many companies keep employees just under what is full time to avoid benefits.
Our only grocery store, part of a chain, has one full time employee, the manager. Company policy.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

I mean the "official full work week" becomes 35 hours, aka you qualify for benefits. To do other wise is just running another scam.

You do understand that they will then only have 30 hour jobs to avoid paying benefits, etc., and that people will continue to end up working 2-4 jobs just to make ends meet.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Back to Boiling Springs!