Walleye Express
01-15-2003, 11:13 PM
Made a mistake yesterday. Posted a thread on the strictly fishing board that should have been posted on the general board. I was wrong, and apologized for doing so. Of course not before I suffered the slings and arrows of several Guest users who frowned on my mistake. Hey, I’m a big boy, and I have myself mentioned to errant poster their mistake when the wrong subjects got onto the wrong boards. And I dont really have anything personally agains't guest users.
One thing though, seems every time I invite criticism on any of the boards, this same subject comes up. I’ll write it the same way the Guest user did. “Some of us have to work for a living”
Now, is it because I am retired? Or because I’m a charter captain, or what? If there’s one thing I’ve learned on this board, besides there are indeed some genuine people using it, is that to give too much of your personal information out on it, can invite some real venom by certain people. If you'll indulge me here, I’d like to clear up a few things, and probably invite more venom.
I hired into a GM foundry 1 month after I graduated from high school. My first job assignment was pouring Iron in #21 foundry. I manually ran a 6 ton hot metal crane, pouring V-8 engine pressure plates. You would dress in steel sleeved gloves up to your arm pits; wear a welding shield and baseball catchers chin guards. You worked with another man next to you doing the same thing. Hot metal would fly as you operated both the hoist with your right hand while you turned the armature and poured the hot metal into the moving molds with your left. You sustained many little burns, and the usual room temperature was 120 degrees. I would have quit that same day but I met a guy who was to become my best friend. His name was RED. He had hair like Ronald McDonald. It was 1970 remember.
Red drove the 20 ton over head hot metal crane that delivered the metal to us on the line. (Jump ahead almost 4 years.) I and red would take the same breaks so we could chew the fat, talk hunting and fishing and play cards downstairs in the cafeteria. One day reds partner didn’t come in, so he had to work through the breaks for a while until they got somebody else. I went on break and came back to find out that red had drove the 20 ton crane off the overhead, when a rail-stop failed, and had been killed when the 20 tons of hot metal poured out onto him.
Got off the iron pouring job and started running a hot box core machine. Making 475 B-cores for semi disk brakes. Came downstairs one day on lunch break. Was washing the Phermeldihide and Graphite off my face and hands when I heard a load pop. Sounded like a paper lunch bag being popped. Entered the cafeteria where a guy playing cards had just been shot in the throat by another player. Same thing happened in the main cafeteria 2 years later, but this guy lived.
(Jump ahead 7 years.) Got transferred to our sister plant Nodular Iron, across the street. A buddy who had just been bumped to 3rd shift #6 Molding was on his way up to the cafeteria for lunch. They were firing up #6 foundry main melter after it had been dropped. (That being emptied re-bricked and clay mudded because of wear). Rule number one, never pour hot 6000 degree iron onto any moisture or water. This creates an instant bomb. When they did, #6 blew up taking my buddy and 30 feet of concrete retainer wall with him into the #2 core room, almost 50 feet away. He was killed instantly. My last 6 years was spent palletizing V-6 and V-8 engine blocks. Had one come down the rollers ever 8 seconds. 26 to a pallet. Between 4 and 6 thousand a day, working 10 to 12 hours. I spent 25 years in that hole. Swore if I lived, I’d get out when I could and do what I wanted to do. So, I’m sorry I never worked.
One thing though, seems every time I invite criticism on any of the boards, this same subject comes up. I’ll write it the same way the Guest user did. “Some of us have to work for a living”
Now, is it because I am retired? Or because I’m a charter captain, or what? If there’s one thing I’ve learned on this board, besides there are indeed some genuine people using it, is that to give too much of your personal information out on it, can invite some real venom by certain people. If you'll indulge me here, I’d like to clear up a few things, and probably invite more venom.
I hired into a GM foundry 1 month after I graduated from high school. My first job assignment was pouring Iron in #21 foundry. I manually ran a 6 ton hot metal crane, pouring V-8 engine pressure plates. You would dress in steel sleeved gloves up to your arm pits; wear a welding shield and baseball catchers chin guards. You worked with another man next to you doing the same thing. Hot metal would fly as you operated both the hoist with your right hand while you turned the armature and poured the hot metal into the moving molds with your left. You sustained many little burns, and the usual room temperature was 120 degrees. I would have quit that same day but I met a guy who was to become my best friend. His name was RED. He had hair like Ronald McDonald. It was 1970 remember.
Red drove the 20 ton over head hot metal crane that delivered the metal to us on the line. (Jump ahead almost 4 years.) I and red would take the same breaks so we could chew the fat, talk hunting and fishing and play cards downstairs in the cafeteria. One day reds partner didn’t come in, so he had to work through the breaks for a while until they got somebody else. I went on break and came back to find out that red had drove the 20 ton crane off the overhead, when a rail-stop failed, and had been killed when the 20 tons of hot metal poured out onto him.
Got off the iron pouring job and started running a hot box core machine. Making 475 B-cores for semi disk brakes. Came downstairs one day on lunch break. Was washing the Phermeldihide and Graphite off my face and hands when I heard a load pop. Sounded like a paper lunch bag being popped. Entered the cafeteria where a guy playing cards had just been shot in the throat by another player. Same thing happened in the main cafeteria 2 years later, but this guy lived.
(Jump ahead 7 years.) Got transferred to our sister plant Nodular Iron, across the street. A buddy who had just been bumped to 3rd shift #6 Molding was on his way up to the cafeteria for lunch. They were firing up #6 foundry main melter after it had been dropped. (That being emptied re-bricked and clay mudded because of wear). Rule number one, never pour hot 6000 degree iron onto any moisture or water. This creates an instant bomb. When they did, #6 blew up taking my buddy and 30 feet of concrete retainer wall with him into the #2 core room, almost 50 feet away. He was killed instantly. My last 6 years was spent palletizing V-6 and V-8 engine blocks. Had one come down the rollers ever 8 seconds. 26 to a pallet. Between 4 and 6 thousand a day, working 10 to 12 hours. I spent 25 years in that hole. Swore if I lived, I’d get out when I could and do what I wanted to do. So, I’m sorry I never worked.