Lots of Newton County people worked down at one of the shipyards in the Golden Triangle back in the day, including me (summer between Freshman and Soph. year of college at Bethlehem Shipbuilding in Beaumont). This is Levingston in Orange in 1956. The island was constructed by the shipyard to turn ships and is actually considered territory of Louisiana. Therefore, men clocking in at the front gate were in Texas but might spend all day on the island working in Louisiana. Buddy James Nichols dad Earl got he and I on through the union hall. He told them that we were apprentice ship fitters. Had no idea what that was but was to find out pretty quickly. We worked second shift, getting there about 2:00 p.m. and working until 11:00 or 12:00 at night. Hottest place I ever worked....95 - 98 degrees when you got to work. Put on a long sleeve khaki shirt, add a set of leather sleeves (basically a leather jacket with no back to protect you from welding sparks) and steel toed boots and hard hat. Then climb up onto steel that held and reflected heat, climb down a ladder into a ship or drilling rig, then fire up a cutting torch or welder. I have come back onto the top deck of a ship back into 98 degrees and felt chilly after being below. Regardless, it was a fascinating place to work. Old classmate David Bishop and old Bleakwood classmate Bruce Langley worked there at the same time. I learned a heck of a lot and grew to respect the hard working guys who fed their families this way.
Posted on: Wed, 23 Jul 2014 18:01:59 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015