A day in the life of a "Pipeliner"

1975 I graduate from high school. That summer I move to Anchorage and my Dad gets me a job working for the plastering company he works for as a 'hod-carrior". Grunt. A "Hod" was a triangle shaped contraption that you fill with plaster and toss on boards to be plastered on the walls. Heavy and messy. Mostly I built scafolding, scrapped floors and helped out. What it did was give me a union card. As a "B"list union memeber I could go to the hall and get a job. By 75 the Pipeline was in full swing and we had people from all over the world showing up for work. At 19 I would meet and work with people from Scotland,Germany,Mexico South America and nearly every state in the USA. I worked with a lot of southern folk. Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas. My first job was in Valdez. I was part of the bush crew. Our job was to cut up trees that had been taken down and burn them to clear the last 9 miles to the port in Valdez. I had sprained my left ancle just prior to getting this job so I show up and realize it was a 4 mile trek up hill each day with a 40 pound chain saw on my back before a 10 hour day!..I was young and "tuff" then. What I noticed about the camp was how well they fed us. Steaks, sea food,pasteries..good food. I roomed with a guy older than my Dad who was nearly retirement age. He was a gnarled old guy with a serious gas problem. I would look at all these guys and tell myself...this will not be me!!!..I transfered my card from Anchorage to Fairbanks to be closer to friends and work the upper part of the line. I really didn't like to work the line. Being young and stupid I didn't understand what had been laid in my lap. A chance of a lifetime to set myself up for life. There were friends who stayed in the union long after the line was done and who have retired on 6 to 7 grand a month. I met one guy who worked all 4 years at the same site. He paid off his home in California,bought a home in Alaska and bought a lodge with cabins and a lake just south of Fairbanks. Today he is a wealthy man. There were many who the pipeline made their dreams come true,there were others I knew who spent 40 grand on coke and at the end had nothing to show for their toil. For years there was a bumper sticker floating around the state that said"God send us another Pipeline and we promise we won't piss this one away like we did the last one!!!" I wish I had been wiser,had more guidence and been more far seeing. But hey I was 19 fresh out of school and wanting only to have enough money to buy a guitar and screw off for awhile. My friend Randy had gotten a city gig thru the union. I really wanted one of those. Union wages, 40 hours a week and in town. I was one number away from getting one when a crack head friend took the job right out from under my nose. Melvin had overdosed on acid 5 times..Randy said a dead monkey could work better than he. Oh well such was my life then. A typical day on the line was one where you fought boredom and sleepiness all day. I had one job where I picked trash up all day. At the end of the shift the boss would climb in the back of the truck and break open half a dozen bags of trash and throw them back on the road!!Job security...I swear I must have picked the same piece of trash up at least a dozen times. My first Job was cutting trees. We spent a week with no chain saw blades..we would go to work every day and nap. We posted someone at the top of this hill who would signal when a chopper was coming to see if we were working. We would crawl out of the weeds crank up the chain saws. Smoke billowing every where with NO TEETH inthe chains just to show the bosses we were working...two weeks without a single lick of real work done...as we used to say back then.."It all Pays the same"!!! I worked the full line from Valdez to Prudoe. I worked 7-10's 7-12's even 7-16's once..seven days a week 10 12 16 hours a day!. It was a very weird scene. A bunch of guys and a few weman existed. A truck driver once told me that this old gal was giving him an attitude once and he looked at her and said"What are going to do when you have to return to the real world AND BE UGLY AGAIN"!!! Her "fan club" got a bit mean with him after that. After 9 weeks up there I would return home and be mildly shocked at seeing more than one girl walking down th e street. I turned 21 working in Isabelle Pass I also remember our countries 200 year centenial while I worked there. In the end all I had to remember was my Martin D-28. I bought my first serious guitar rig with tax returns from my work there. A Gibson 335,and a Music man 212 100 watt combo... Pipeline Daze...wish I'd been wiser...oh well.