Studio8 - Uniting the Arts

My father would sometimes take me
on the night shift to where he worked in a paper mill
he said " you can't be too careful around this machinery, it will take your arm clean off"

it was there where I first heard him use the word "fuck"
seeing your father as part of the underworld for the first time
the surprise was all over my face I imagine,
minus mother & sister I discovered my Dad was a player

and he had included me
using that word in my presence -

that moment was like we were smugglers
making our way at night up the Hudson River
with a cargo of cloth, food, rum, and musket balls
for Ethan Allen & his Green Mountain Boys
you know, the boys who had said "Fuck You" to a king ...

great recollection
woven into a poignant moment in boys life
my dad worked 35 years at Bethlehem Steel
in later years of his employment, my brother and I took a tour
to see where the old man had been spending his days and nights ( shift work )
the place was so loud, we couldn't hear a word the guide said
so, different than the point you were making, but similar
in the sense dad had this other life
away from the way he talked at home
this place was crude.....he saw many people killed on the job
he used to say, it's funny how Bethlehem keeps these stories out of the newspaper
when he was 61 he saw a twenty something fall into a vat of acid
killed him......my dad turned in his papers to retire that day
he said, I'm gonna be next

cutting off arms
falling into vats of acid
deathtraps with paychecks

I have always been impressed with people that could make the best of terrible situations- like sucky jobs

Thx, saw, judih, & Jana - I appreciate your reads & comments

My father died a good death but it took me ten years and lsd before I could mourn.
I was an Oedipus wreck for sure. A few years ago, I had a dream about him, I was astonished at how young he looked. Then I remembered that in the dream he was ten years younger than I was.
The family called him Crazy Mike even so he played Bobbie Fischer to a draw.

homage to the fathers of studio eight.

Thx for your read & comments, Jack, I appreciate it - holding Fischer to a draw would have been no boy's play -

The smell of a paper Mill
Staves off hunger I hear

Why they do their people like that I dunno- 9-to 5
swing-3 to 11 - and graveyard - but you can never make plans
Because they- people that work those odd hours— so they only got the mill.

My friend s husband worked at a paper mill for 32 years
In my world… no one is that stable

I admire stability
Like it exists
In an old black and white television show
Lumber paper
Siccors rock paper

Used to stand up paddle on the Columbia paper mill-
That smell made me sick
Saying fuck with the men didn’t make it better
It made it wrose
Like I approved of their shit

Yes those machines will tear your arm off
But more than likely it will suck the life out of you
Every shift then they retire
Get sick and die
Of cancer brought to you by the paper mill

The freedom I feel at having left
That area is huge
There was never a toliet paper crisis