18 Shops: My 31 Adventure with Big Bessie

By Leonard E. Heffner

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 Ive 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. Im 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 companys 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!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Feb 2, 2017
• ISBN: 9781524579081

Leonard E. Heffner

From teen age to middle age I worked in the Bethlehem,Pa.plant of the former Bethlehem Steel Corp. Few employees had such a varied career as I did.The events I witnessed were seldom known or spoken of outside the plant. To the non-steelworker these might sound like fiction. This short novel tells only about my personal experiences and not of anyone else. I assure the reader that those mysterious buildings and structures as seen from outside the gates,were just as rough on the inside. Each one was unique and hid it's secrets from all but a few. I was lucky to have worked and survived in 18 different departments or "shops". A few of these I bid into on my own,but to most I was company placed. Each one had it's own personality and cast of characters.A few of these shops were only 1 or 2 week events. I tried to be as concise as possible by telling only about the most memorable people and happenings,not boring the reader with too much detail. The 31 years I spent as a steelworker shaped my entire adult life,even to the present,20 years after retirement. My Bio: Lenny Heffner worked in the Bethlehem,Pa. plant of the former B.S.C. from 1966 to 1997. He is retired and still lives in Summit Hill,Pa..He is currently employed as a full time Security Officer doing plant security. Please let me know if this is OK Thank you , Leonard Heffner

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Copyright © 2017 by Leonard E. Heffner.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Rev. date: 01/27/2017

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CONTENTS

Chapter 1   I Got The Pits

Chapter 2   Birds Of A Feather

Chapter 3   The Cabbage Patch Kid

Chapter 4   I’ll Be Back

Chapter 5   Back To School

Chapter 6   You’re Working For Me Tonight

Chapter 7   The Blue Mountain

Chapter 8   Grease Is The Word

Chapter 9   How About You?

Chapter 10   Return To Sender

Chapter 11   Who You Gonna Call?

Chapter 12   Back To My Future

Chapter 13   On The Road Again

Chapter 14   Finish-Finish

Chapter 15   The Last Ten Years

Chapter 16   The Big Bang

Chapter 17   Things Do Go Better With Coke

Epilogue

My Score Card

Dedicated

To all living and deceased brothers and sisters of the United Steelworkers of America. Also to my late wife, Elda Mae, with whom I shared ten of these years. Also to Joanne.

So the graduations hang on the wall, but they never really helped us at all. No they never taught us what was real, iron and coal and chromium steel (Billy Joel, Allentown).

Come with me now.

Still being of reasonably sound mind and body, I thought I should write the story of my thirty-one-year adventure in the Bethlehem plant of the Bethlehem Steel Corporation.

I was inspired to pen this novel on the fiftieth anniversary of my hiring.

I have made the chapters concise, my hope being the casual reader finds them both interesting and entertaining.

Few employees experienced such a diverse career in one company as I have. Even fewer believe it’s true. As a freemason, I am pledged to relate accurately and truly the events I describe. Concerning the employees I’ve mentioned, I only used first names, many of which are fictitious or nicknames for anonymity.

I am the last surviving member of my immediate family and have no one else to pass these stories except to you, the gentle reader.

CHAPTER 1

I GOT THE PITS

Call me Lenny; Ishmael is taken. August 7, 1966, was a Sunday and my first day on the job. On Friday, August 5, brown suit Mr. C. hired me but did not tell me to which department I was being assigned. Show this paper to the guard at the main gate, and he will contact someone. So the guard made the call, and I was told they would send someone down to escort me.

After about ten minutes, Pancho came down to bring me to the office in the still-unknown department. A brief walk brought us to the soaking pit office, where I was asked by the schedule clerk when I could start. I replied anytime and was told to report Sunday morning at 7:00 a.m. At this time, another laborer, Tony, took me on a walk to the plant shoe store to be fitted with safety shoes and a pair of new gloves. This hiring process took most of the day, and it was almost 3:00 p.m. until Pancho took me to the New Street Welfare room to pick out a clothes basket. Glad that the twenty-five-cent five-hour parking meter hadn’t expired, I was ready to make the forty-mile trip home.

A little fast rewind is in order. I graduated high school in 1965 and decided to try my luck at the nearby Penn State extension for two miserable semesters. I quit in early spring and went to Bethlehem Steel with my friend Paul from our hometown of Summit Hill. Paul wasn’t hired because of his recent operation. I was