18 Shops: My 31 Adventure with Big Bessie

These chapters should have provided a rare glimpse of the inner workings of the Bethlehem plant. The events I witnessed were seldom heard or mentioned outside the plant. I do not judge anyone I’ve mentioned. Most of them have gone to that country from which no traveler ever returns. I doubt if one in any five hundred will have the slightest memory of me. I’m okay with that. We are all spirits and survivors of a different era that is long gone and can be proud of what we accomplished. I am grateful and indebted to the USWA union, without whose help I never would have made it to retirement. As always, the company’s response would be, “Man was paid.” I close with the words of Bob Seger, “Sometimes at night I see their faces, the traces they left on my soul. These are the memories that make me a wealthy soul” (“Travelin’ man”). So mote it be!