Working in the Mines - Summers 1948/49/50

 Chapter IV - When I wasn't working

 

Sudbury

Sudbury was still a sort of frontier town in 1948. It had wooden sidewalks along the main street and the landscape looked like a moonscape because of the poisonous fumes emanating from the smelters' chimneys killing all vegetation and covering the area with a continuous rain of sulfurous dust that turned to acid when it rained. The area was a Moonscape, in fact astronauts came there to test some of their space vehicles.  A few caring citizens carted in fresh earth from miles away to enjoy a brief season of flowers and greenness for the season. My boarding house was directly across from the jail so my view from the porch was the men walking about in the yard in their pyjama like suits.  

 There was a lot of racial tension at the time because newcomers were arriving from northern and eastern Europe. Many came with good a education but at that time were required by the Canadian Government to serve time in remote parts of Canada before going down to the cities, My three Finnish friends were a good example; two would work for a year in the mines on a rotational basis to finance the university education of the other. They didn't much care for the work rules set by the the militant Communist Union ( Int'l Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers) , and they had a reputation for working harder to maximize their bonuses. The company naturally took advantage of this by raising bonus standards thus angering the mining population. Some fighting took place in town over this.

My main meal each day was at a large workman's restaurant on the main street. I recall its name was something like Klutajats. It had two or three long tables, and no menu. We jammed in one of the long rows of settings and ate the meal they served, and it changed every day. I recall the food was always fresh and tasty with plenty of meat, potatoes and vegetables, lots of bread and usually a pie or cake. The restaurant was always packed so they were doing a good business. 

How I used my leisure time depended on the shift I was working, The day shift left me with the normal late afternoon when I often went to the beach at Ramsay Lake that bordered the town and where I could swim and meet some friends. I also remember endless walks back and forth along the main street mostly for watching and often saying hello to girls who were doing the same thing. We didn't spend much money because we had to save up enough for our school tuition and books. On a few occasions I took my landlady's daughter, Iris or a girl I met on my walks to a movie and then ended up having a few beers or a stop at a soda fountain  before heading back to the boarding house. Iris was a bit dull but a convenient friend to pass a limited amount of time with. Her mom was always there at the door waiting for her when we returned,

On the afternoon shift, work finished at midnight and I didn't go right to bed but went out with friends for something to eat till about two in the morning before going off to sleep until about 9 AM. A big lunch at Klutajats and then off to work again, The grave yard shift from midnight to early morning was better because I could sleep to about two in the afternoon and then had the rest of the day free until midnight. I'm not sure how years of facing weekly rotations like this affects the health of these shift workers. It ransacks your bodily functions, disrupts the rhythm of sleeping and your meals.  

 

  Rouyn-Noranda

In Noranda the following year the shift changes were much the same as in Sudbury. It is always night in the mine so down there it didn't make much difference. Working days left the evening free and it was quite different than in Sudbury. Noranda was more of a middle class town with many miners having modest homes and invariably a summer camp by a lake not too far away. I soon met up with friends from the town at the tennis club. I played regularly with Dollard St Laurent whose brother was the coach there. He was just learning tennis for the first time but was soon beating me regularly, The second year I was in Noranda he joined the the Montreal Canadians and became a star defense man between 1950 and 1958. I also met with many student friends working in the mines and girls that were home for the summer from universities and nursing schools.

 

One girl that I met at the club, Lenore McLean, became a steady friend that I subsequently dated off and on later in Montreal up until I finished university.  Her father had come to Noranda in 1923 as a canoe man for Ed Horne who played an important role in in the discovery and formation of the Horne Mine that later became Noranda Mines. Mr Mclean had the first dollar he was paid by Horne in a frame on his living room wall. He was by then a very rich man and co-owner of a heating and ventilating company that was dominant in Northern Quebec and Ontario at the time.  He and his wife treated me like family and seemed pleased that I was spending time with their oldest daughter who was about my age. He generously offered to have a select number of young university students who worked in the mines to feel free to enjoy Sundays at his summer home by Lake Dufault. a few kilometers away. A similar number of the young women from the tennis club arrived as well so every Sunday a good time of swimming, canoeing and barbecuing was had by all. Students were generally welcomed in the homes of many families of the business and professional class who had daughters home from school for the summer.

Marriages and engagements resulted from theses events including three eventual marriages I recall between three mining engineering students and the Mayor, Mine Manager Mine Superintendent's daughters. Clearly the managers and business owners and their wives in the town engineered and kept a watchful eye on these events to ensure that their eligible daughters would meet acceptable suitors. 

 Looking back on it you can say that this was a snooty way to isolate the daughters of professional and managerial families from the sons of the common miners. you might say a mining town parallel of the coming out parties of the wealthy families in large cities. I was always contemptuous of those events among the rich in Montreal but most of the young students I worked with were broke like I was and saving every penny to go back to school, so we set aside our conscious and enjoyed this generosity.

 

 

In Noranda the students and many of the foreign workers (we called them DP's meaning displaced persons) boarded in the company bunkhouse, an ugly barracks with a canteen with tolerable food. I made many friends with the DP's and learned a lot about their terrible lives during the war, particularly in Eastern Europe. Surprisingly to me at the time these men took pride in their musical ability and could form instant choirs often accompanied by one or more accordions. When there was a marriage their wedding celebrations went on for days. Everyone was welcome  and it was a rotation from the ceremonies to work and then back to the party again. The bride and groom were soon long gone but that didn't stop anything.

We led a double social life! There was the social life I described in the above and then there were those visits to the hotel bars late in the evening in Rouyn, the adjacent town. We sometimes went there with our student friends to have a few beers and to watch the lively action in progress. The bar was always filled at that hour with many single men from the town and from the remote and isolated lumber and mining camps in the region.

 

The 'ladies of the night' were waiting for them and a thriving business was taking place with the stairs and elevators kept very busy. These ladies knew we had no interest or need for their services and some viewed us as friends to sit and chat with while taking a tea break from their strenuous activities. My observation was that most of them had little education, came from an unsettled background  and had made a choice to escape unemployment or a lowly paid job in a laundry or diner by working as prostitutes in the hotel either full or part time. For most it was just a job until something better came along or until they were too old to continue. Some ending up marrying one of their clients and I often saw them accompanied going to the movies or out dining somewhere. Frankly I saw them as providing a much needed service to the many lonely single men working throughout the region. It wasn't legal but it was run like a legal business in the hotel and the police stayed away if there wasn't any trouble from drunken behaviour. The Salvation Army volunteers were always silently there and the ladies and their patrons knowing the help they had given to less fortunate friends, gave generously.  

 

My Great Victory

Nothern Quebec held a track meet in Noranda during the second summer I was there. Aspiring athletes arrived from the surrounding area dressed in their shorts, running shoes and numbered sweat shirts. I came with friends from the tennis club just to watch. I was particularly interested in watching the high jump. I quickly observed while they practiced that despite their fancy outfits  they were a lousy bunch of jumpers using the scissor kick so I asked an official if I could participate. He said yes but they were about to start so I had no time to change and get my running shoes. I simply kicked off my shoes, rolled up my pant legs and to my surprise in my bare feet won the event. I recall using the Western Roll. I only jumped 5 feet 6 inches but that was enough. My inspiration came from my cheering section from the tennis club. A happy moment.

 

 

 

Working in the Mines I - Summers 1948/49/50

Chapter I – Passing the Medical and Starting Work

At the end of my first year of University in May I decided along with three close friends (Ted MacDonald, Maury Katz and Bob Barrow) to head north to work in the mines instead of another season in the lumber camps. The pay was more than twice what I had been earning in the camps, a sum sufficient to pay for my university fees and to help my parents with additional living expenses. An added incentive was the leisurely 54 hours work week instead of the basic 60 hours I had to endure in the camps.   

In early June I took the train to Sudbury and went immediately to the employment office of  The International Nickel Company that had several mines and a smelter in the area. After filling in the application forms I was sent to their medical office. Part of the medical examination was a weighing in, and I was dismayed to learn that at 133 pounds I failed to meet their minimum weight requirement of 140 pounds for students. I was devastated and as I was leaving the clinic the doctor, to soften the blow, promised that if I gained some weight at a later date the employment offer was still open. I certainly wasn’t going to gain that much weight overnight and this meant leaving my friends and taking a train farther north to spend another summer in the lumber camps.

Before heading north I joined with my friends in a bar to commiserate and say my good byes. Bob Barrow asked, “Have you thought about loading up on water and then going back to the medical office to get weighed again?”

I said, “Are you crazy? Seven pounds of water equals 112 ounces or about nine 12 ounce bottles of this Pepsi we are drinking - and the doctor would never believe me anyway.” 

Bob replied, “Well you have nothing to lose so let’s keep going; you are on your second bottle now and you have just finished eating a hot dog and chips so let’s switch to water and aim for just six or seven more.”

I had nothing to lose, other than blowing up, so we asked the bar maid for two large glasses of water. When she watched me quickly down these and gasp for air while my friends cheered me on she grinned nervously and asked. “What are you guys doing? Is this some sort of bet? “  

“No this is very serious”. Bob replied, and without adding an explanation, asked for two more glasses. 

"Well I don't know if I should, and this is the last time because I don't want to get in trouble." She served two more up.  

Turning to me Bob said, “Well if you finish those two glasses that makes six or about four and a half pounds; add the hot dog and chips and we are closer to five pounds so we are almost there."

"I can't." I said. 

"Shut up and drink." he replied, so taking a deep breath I downed the two glasses of water. "Great now you have only 3 glasses to go, and miss, three more glasses please. And have pity on this guy, because if you won't serve it he won't get a job in the mine here because he doesn't weigh enough and will have to leave Sudbury to find work."

By now I could hardly breathe but as an act of bravado I gasped out to change that order to just two more glass and another order of chips and a hot dog to wash it down.

" Well okay, but I'm really scared now, this is dangerous,  but I will do it - and don't tell my boss if he blows up." she said.

Bob phoned for a cab because there was no time to lose; I was bursting. I downed the last glass of water and staggered out to the cab with my hot dog in hand and my belt undone. In ten minutes we were at the medical centre and I raced in and God must have been with me because the doctor was still there.

I calmly said, “I have gained those pounds so please weigh me” He looked at me amused and replied. “Don’t be ridiculous. You are probably carrying stones or a brick.” 

“No,” I said, “I have really gained this weight. I didn't eat anything on the train coming up from Montreal and didn’t drink much but I’m back to my normal weight now.” 

“OK , but I don’t believe you, but you can take off all your clothes and I will weigh you again”

I stepped on the scales and when he saw the weight gain he laughed and said in amazement. “Holy Cow!, I don’t know what you did, but I guess I have to sign off so that you can get that job!” At that moment I was ready to explode and asked to leave the room and raced down the hall  for the wash room. I just made it and with a sense of relief quickly lost most of those extra pounds. That was probably the happiest pee I ever had. And I was hired.

I think the doctor knew what I had done and I learned later from Ted MacDonald that management picked up on this story and were much amused. 

I visited Bob Barrow for the last time in Ottawa two years ago. He was dying but still had the strength and sense of humour to share our memories of this event from many years ago. 

The last story about being hired is about the old foreman at the Murray mine who had the new recruits lined up for inspection before being assigned. There were about a dozen of us. He looked us over and made some cynical comments about how green we looked and how we needed toughening up. Then he asked us to show him the palms of our hands and walked up and down to feel our biceps. I was probably the skinniest and youngest in that line up but he singled me out and said, “kid I can see you have done some hard work;” I guess that lumbering experience had paid off.

Boy! Was I proud.