Step Off!

5Reality Check

The summer before my senior year at UNC, I got a job working at a small steel mill in Wampum, Pennsylvania. It was a little over 40 miles west of downtown Pittsburgh near the Ohio border with a town population just under 800 people. There may not have been a lot of people in town, but trust me, they were the epitome of hard-working, western Pennsylvania folks that the region is so well known for.

I had a meeting with the foreman the day before I started. There I was told that, since I wasn't union, I wouldn't get union wages, since I wasn't a skill worker, I'd be given a specific job each day and the only hours available to work would be the “graveyard shift.” Which was appropriately named because the shift hours spanned from midnight to 8 a.m., sometimes noon if anyone called in sick. Then I was told not to call in sick. Truthfully, this was all good with me, because I'd be making $11/hour, which in my college mind was basically equivalent to an NBA contract today.

The first night I showed up for work I was given a locker and a respirator and was pointed to the job board, which was nothing more than a chalkboard with everyone's duties for the night written on it. My name was always at the very bottom and always had the same job next to it, “Utility Man.” All this meant was that I'd be given the worst job that no one else wanted. I'll just say, ain't no toilet quite like a steel mill toilet, not even a Red Roof Inn one.

I eventually worked my way up to occasionally ...