Page 18 - Women in the Steel Plant, Part Two Rose Grant Young, Crane Operator

ISSUE : Issue 37

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1984/8/1

other shift, he went into the army in Ap- ril--and- this is what they were grooming me for. By that time I had taken over the crane. The interesting part of that is that Maynard became my father-in-law and Roy became my husband. Roy came back in June, and we were married. We met through his father, really. It was unusual. I could see how much like his father he was. And I thought his father--the sun and the stars shone out of his father--and he was very, very much like him. (And they were both crane operators.) Yes. (And so were you.) Yeah. (It wasn't enough that you pulled the le? vers . They wanted you to know the mechan? ics of the crane as well.) Nobody wanted me to do it, only Maynard. Now, there was a trouble-man. If there were trouble on different shifts, all we had to do was call a trouble-man. If we had trouble with the electric, we called a fellow from the electric department. And one time a man came up. He said, "I'm from the electric department." And I said, "Okay." "What do you do," he said, "if the fingers on your board jam?" I looked at him and I said, "I change them." He said, "You what?" I said, "I change them." He said, "Show me." He didn't believe me. So I took the skirt off the box, and I took one that was kind of frayed, and I put a new finger on it, and I put the thing back on. He said, "Do you know what you're doing? You're taking my job." He said, "I often wondered how come we don't get a call on your shift." And he said, "Now, I know." He said, "Maynard." They never got any calls off Maynard's shift, but they knew him so long, and they knew that he knew as much about the crane as the fellows that had to come to fix it. And what he knew, he taught me, see. But I never reali'ed that there was a certain man for a certain job. I had never worked under that system before. Sydney Sewing Centre Limited SEWING MACHINE, CENTRAL VAC, KNITTING MACHINES |$/M6Ert; Large Selection Wool & Patterns T Knitting & Sewing Supplies 292 Charlotte St. Sydney, N. S. (902)564-6220 yw Sewing Machines from $148.00 Nerichac Pottery IXIy EARTHENWARE & STONEWARE '>'' RETAIL & WHOLESALE ARICHAT, ISLE MADAME 226-3004 All Rooms Overlook Sydney Harbour Vista Motel King's Road, Sydney, N. S* RESERVATION NUMBER: 539-6550 Zenith Number: 07940, Anywhere in N. S. Cape Breton Mental Health Centre Main Location: 1st Floor, Cape Breton Hospital,' Sydney River Satellite Clinics Serve These Areas: North Sydney, Glace Bay, New Waterford, Neil's Harbour, Ingonish, Cheticamp, Baddeck, St. Peter's Services: Psychotherapy, Individual Counselling, Marriage & Family Counselling, Group Therapy, Consultation to Agencies, Schools, etc.. Drug Therapy, Forensic Assessment, Psychological Testing, Parenting, Children's Services Referrals accepted from all sources. You can even refer yourself. (18) Please Call 562-3202 or 562-3110 or 562-3333

Cape Breton's Magazine