Here's a pic of Schweizer's Lumber. It was owned by my BIL's father. He was an old Swiss man and he was tough on us. You had to be at your assigned machine at your start time and you didn't stop until it was 5pm. He didn't even want you to talk if you worked in pairs! It was dangerous too. We had a chipper that would eat up a 16' Oak slab in seconds. I learned what hard work was an it's helped me ever since. I'm sorry the picture isn't the best.
Kind of nice to hear about the bosses of late. Some were just strict and promoted independent working. But then again helps to know people you work with so that cohesion is involved too.
My first job was something similar...working in a lumber mill pulling green chain. I remember working outside (covered but open to the elements on two sides) in the middle of winter with it snowing, working in a t-shirt and sweating to the point that the shirt would be soaked. My guess is that stuff would be automated now days
I too worked in sawmills from 1990 to 2003, i miss it. Not much left of the timber industry in the part of oregon i live in. Its really a shame because alot of the small towns that used to have mills are dying a slow cruel death.
Yeah Shelton and Aberdeen and Hoquiam are a few in WA. These towns are actually just hubs in between places for vacation spots. If you run the gamut in the residential areas, you'll find it's not really a place that changes with prosperity. Lots of drugs involved. Its common with lumber jobs as the labor has always been intensive but picking up odd shifts at night will do drive folks to do this for family but its mostly down the tubes and counter-productive
Ya the mill in the pict above was ochoco lumber co. That was the last mill i worked at. Now the area i live in is doen ok, because they brought in data centers so lots of const jobs plus lots of hoose building. This area was very depressed in the 08 to 12 era. I think drugs are a problem anywhere you go, at least in the western us anyway.
I really miss the days when i worked at a sawmill. It was also good firewood hoarding as we could get trim ends off of kiln dried pine and douglas fir for free.
Heroin has been around for a very long time, I'm not sure why it's such a problem now. I think a lot of people take drugs to fill a hole they have. They need to find other ways to do that.
Hard to make a living, pay a debt and you're still in the hole. Borrowed time. I guess if i had to make sense of this, I hoard to battle other demons.
Just some towns are only shadows of their former selves. Not all in dilapidation but empty high rises of the leftover town. Too expensive to maintain and no flow of income since earning is sporadic.
Apart from all the insignificant jobs you pick up here and there as a pre-driving-license teen, my first job was at a feed store. Then for a motel at the owere short term and ended when I started working night shift (weekends) at a 24hr gas station at 17 yrs old. I was by myself from 11 to 7. Many stories with that job...... Gas was way cheap in those days .25 gallon! It was a full service station, clean windshield-pump gas- check oil on every customer's vehicle. Had the coin changer right on the belt.
I had a friend who pumped gas back in the early 80's, he got paid a nickel for every gallon he pumped.
I worked at a Holiday gas station back in the 60's and young guys would stop in for a bucks worth of gas and it would be enough for the weekend. Had to check the oil and clean all the windows as well on each car.
