Home
Forums
The Lounge
Radio Station
Forums
The Lounge
Radio Station
Radio Station
| Author | Message |
|---|---|
| yankeebythewater |
Posted: Sun Jun 17, 2007 10:36 pm
|
|
Joined: 04 Feb 2006 Posts: 128 |
Out of Washington State
www.laborneighborradio.com _________________ A Working Class Hero Is Something To Be ~ John Lennon |
| Back to top | profile :: pm |
| Mulligan |
Posted: Tue Jun 19, 2007 11:01 pm
|
|
Joined: 04 Feb 2006 Posts: 358 Location: Ground Zero |
Quote: Journeymen Plumbers and Steamfitters, Local No. 44 Brings back memories of the pipeline. Tulsa Local 798 had a 40 mile 42” natural gas pipeline contract that went right through N. Idaho and up into British Columbia in the early ’80s. I happened to be living within Local 44’s jurisdiction back then and was carrying an active UA card as well. Seems that I needed some money to keep the homestead/chicken farm in N. Idaho going over the winter, so I signed up. The job started in January of ’82 as I recall, and it paid $14.+ per hour –ten hour days, six days a week no time to do your laundry –and believe me, you needed some laundry to withstand ten hour days outside all day in sunny Idaho during that time of the year. Anyway, the upside was that I was making big money when most folks in N. Idaho existed on the sale of summer picked mountain blue berries, welfare checks, and part time hours at the Bargain Giant. I became a virtual stranger to family life for about eight months because of the pipeline, slept through most of the church service on Sunday, and forgot about any sort of social life that year. About all I could think about was a bunch of Louisiana yahoo welders who griped constantly about the cold and threatened to quit at any given moment, the straw boss that looked like someone from the set of “Cool Hand Luke,” and all that dark time driving to and from work. Along about August the pipeline had gone south to within shouting distance of Spokane. By then the ground had gone from knee-deep mud to dry dust. The skies had become crystal clear, and I had saved a pile of “drag-up” money over the winter and spring. So what’s a guy to do? Well, I dragged-up of course. The chickens needed tending, berries needed picking, the jr. Mulligans needed dad back on a full time basis, and Mrs. Mulligan needed… well anyway it was time to quit. But I never did work part time at the Bargain Giant. |
| Back to top | profile :: pm |
| yankeebythewater |
Posted: Wed Jun 20, 2007 3:57 am
|
|
Joined: 04 Feb 2006 Posts: 128 |
Mull - I picked you for a first reply.
Hope your UA pension is as secure as you picking blueberries and me picking strawberries. Any deductions to your pension, yet? Living on the side of a mountain for me, consitutes, peace. 
_________________ A Working Class Hero Is Something To Be ~ John Lennon |
| Back to top | profile :: pm |
| Mulligan |
Posted: Thu Jun 21, 2007 11:25 pm
|
|
Joined: 04 Feb 2006 Posts: 358 Location: Ground Zero |
Quote: Hope your UA pension is as secure as you picking blueberries and me picking strawberries. You can always count on blueberries and strawberries. All you gotta do with blueberries is shoo the bears away and get to picking. Bucking hay bales, picking hops (I’m told), and odd jobbing works too. A pension can be another thing entirely. Since our pension fiasco of a while back, the top echelon has changed hands entirely -effecting what amounts to a laundering of past circumstances (fill in your own blanks here). Such things are not discussed now. But no matter, we seem to be back on track. It’s all ‘down the memory hole’ as Orwell would say, but thanks for the thought. |
| Back to top | profile :: pm |
Home
Forums
The Lounge
Radio Station
Forums
The Lounge
Radio Station
|
Page 1 of 1
|
||