TRANSCRIPTJG - James Gibson, interviewee [with Wilma (WM) Morrison present] / LR - Lyn Royce, interviewer
LR: Okay. So, you were talking about heating up the rivets down on the ground.
JG: Yeah.
LR: Now, these are like, red hot...
JG: Well, yeah, what I did, why I'm saying ground, uh, y' can... if, if the heater... There was 1 heater, his name was Ivan. He was a black guy, named Ivan. Man, he was a, he could, he could... He knew the secret of heating rivets, just right, and he could fire them things up 4 and 5 stories.
LR: Now how did they fire them? Jus, just...
JG: With his tongs, he threw them up.
LR: Okay.
JG: Now there was a catcher with a cone-shaped...
LR: Okay.
JG: ...thing with a handle on it. Okay?
LR: Okay.
JG: That was the catcher. And he would catch these rivets [flicks wrist] - CHUKUNK - like that; put it in his tongs, and put the rivet in the hole and then the boys would RNN-RNN-RNN-RNN-RNN - rivet it, okay? That's how it was done.
LR: Ah... Okay.
JG: Alright? So, this 1 morning when I came in, somethin' had happened, I found out later he hurt himself. Ah, so: 'Uh, Jim!' 'Yeah?' 'Didn't you say you worked in the shipyards?' 'Yeah.' 'Well, shoot, you can catch. Today you catch!' So, I've never caught a rivet in my life! So I picked up this cone, and the guy was down on the, about 2 stories, I would think, down. I think we were, we weren't up high, 2 or 3 stories. 'You ready?' 'Any time you're ready, man.' The guy'd yell, 'Okay!' [as to the riveters] 'You guys ready?' 'Yea, ready...' This rivet came up - POUWGH!! [starts laughing] It went in this thing, and I, I seen how they snap it, but I did the same thing; didn't stay in there, it went - PWOUOOO!! [points off in another direction]
WM: [laughs..]
LR: Oh my gosh... Oh my gosh...
WM: He's still here...
LR: Yeah!
JG: So... 'Gimme another! POUWGH!! [points off in different direction; all are laughing...] So they said, 'What the hell's the matter with you?' 'Oh, man... Bit of a headache this morning, you know... too much last night,' 'n all that - I was sober. Next one, CLINK!! [mimes catching it, looking in the cone] Ooh!! I was so surprised! [laughs]
WM: What happened?!
JG: I didn't know what to do. For a second, I didn't know what to do... I had this... AAAGGH!!! And that was the beginning of my career as a catcher.
WM: Oh.
JG: After a while, man, I could go - KUHPING!! - whshooo... Or I would go - PING!! - almost from behind? PING!! 'Hey Jim, you catch for us today!?' and all this kinda crap, you know? Whoo! But, believe it or not, I didn't like to catch as much as I liked buckin' up.
WM: Is that right?
JG: And bucking up is, is hard!
LR: What's buckin' up?
JG: Buckin' up is when the rivet goes in the hole, okay? The buck-up guy, like the head of the rivet... the buck up guy has a tool, it's like a heavy tool, but its shaped concave to fit over the head of the rivet. He's supposed to keep that rivet hard against the place. The other end of the rivet, is where the driver is and he BAH-RNN-RNN-RNN-RNN-RNN and he rounds that rivet off tight against the vertical. See, that's how...
WM: You're gonna have to work fast.
JG: Yeah, you have to work fast and the buck-up guy has to be right there; no slackin' off or anything. I don't know why I liked that job. Stupid... You know. A-BAH-RNN-RNN-RNN-RNN-RNN!! Oh man I loved puttin' that thing in the RRRRRNNNNNN!! [hollers; indecipherable] ...'n all that kinda crap. I felt I was really doing somethin'. What a stupid ass. Meanwhile, [mimes catching] this was easy! Know what I mean?!
WM: Yeah!
JG: Och...
LR: So how old were you?
JG: I was in my 20's. |
|
