STORIES / Okara’shòn:’a
Not washed up yet
I was knocked out for a while, but my boss had an old Polaroid camera, and he took a hell of a lot of pictures when I was in the hole. To my right there was rebar sticking out. If I hit that, I'd be a dead man.
Hot spot
My son lit a candle and when I put my hand over the flame, this black soot shot up. I felt it leave my hand and my hand was covered in soot. The young man left and said, “Thank you very much.” He was going to go back to work on Monday morning.My son lit a candle and when I put my hand over the flame, this black soot shot up. I felt it leave my hand and my hand was covered in soot. The young man left and said, “Thank you very much.” He was going to go back to work on Monday morning.
That's my home
I told them, “Shoot. You got my whole back as a target. If you can’t hit me, then there’s something wrong and you shouldn’t be a cop.” I walked right through. I left my car out there because you couldn't get gas anyways. In town, gas was only for ambulance, fire trucks, things like that.
Coffee break
I had to go to school across the river because we didn’t have a high school in Kahnawà:ke. I went to Bishop Whelan High School in Lachine. There were a bunch of us, and I was the only one that spoke Mohawk, so I had no one to speak with. I didn’t use it daily, but the language was still in me.
I'll be damned
Right around 9:30 I told one of the guys who I was working with, "Hey look there's a girl on the balcony over there. Bet you if I wave to her, she's going to wave back."
Died on the iron
For two years, one leg was shorter than the other. He had a hearing aid, and he had a big steel plate in his face. Whenever he would drink beer, his skin would tighten up and you would see the mark of the plate in his cheek. He was off work for five years.
Splice service technician
So, I went to Montreal to get some tools. Pliers, work boots, gloves, whatever I needed and they supplied the rest. I wasn’t the crane operator. I was what they called the “tag man” on the radio giving him signals to move the crane.
Can't throw me out
I finished high school in 1966 at Bishop Whelan in Lachine. My mother gave me two weeks to find myself a job or something. It was a Wednesday when I was packing my clothes. I figured I would go and join the service because everyone was joining the Marines at the time.
Made it work
We made it work and would come back from Detroit for Christmas and summertime. But it got to a point that there were a lot of guys from town who would come back every weekend, right from work.
Union local 25
My father was in the business here in Montreal and he knew the ironwork business agents and people in the industry. So, I asked him to get me in instead.
Becoming an ironworker
A week before I turned 18 my father said, “I’m going to take you to work with me.” We got a ride down to New York and stayed at his apartment that was on the street next to Spar Bar in Brooklyn.
Big problem in Manhattan
My son and I had a talk on the way home that day about the sand running out of your hourglass. That event really drove home that you should never take life for granted because you just never know what can happen.
Broken Ankle wedding
On June 12, 1969, I broke my ankle on an ironwork job site in New York City. It was a Thursday and I was due to get married that Saturday.
Nevins street
We grew up in the Bronx. We didn’t live in Brooklyn because that’s where all the Mohawks lived. All the ironworkers.
The kind of work I do
My last iron job was in 2004 in Sorel. That was when I was having problems with my lower hernia. I had to have surgery.