A few memories from working on a railroad salvage crew in the summer of 1979.
In the summer of 1979 I needed to start making some serious money, and had very little saved up in my bank account. I was already engaged to be married to Jane, and we were planning to be married in August of 1980. I started that summer mowing lawns — working for a commercial landscape company, but don’t recall what I was earning. Minimum wage was $2.90 at the time. (In the summer of 1978, I worked at Gospel Recordings in Los Angeles as an unpaid volunteer.)
The Vos Family Christmas letter (dated 1979) said: “Doug was home with us while he worked on a commercial lawn care job the first part of the summer, and on week-ends while he worked with an abandoned railroad salvage company the rest of the summer.”
Grandpa John Recommended Me For The Job
My grandfather John knew a guy in the Grand Rapids area who was a bit of a risk-taking entrepreneur. I can’t remember his name so let’s call him “Bob Bulldozer”.
Grandpa John met “Mr. Bulldozer” when he was selling Cen-Pe-Co oil. Grandpa heard from my dad that I needed to earn some money before I got married, so he recommended me for the job.
Bob (not his real name) owned an assortment of heavy equipment including a bulldozer and several flatbed semi trucks (18 wheelers). He was a good petroleum products customer for my grandpa.
Mr. Bulldozer had a business idea to buy up old, abandoned railroad tracks in Michigan. The concept was to buy the rights to the old railroad tracks, disassemble the rails, and sell the steel to scrap metal yards in the Chicago area. He would also sell the old railroad ties to landscaping and garden supply outlets.
Mr. Bulldozer had acquired the rights to some old railroad tracks near Adrian, Michigan. He was paying $8 to $10 per hour, which was a really good wage back then. (Equivalent to $32 per hour in 2024)
Joining the Railroad Salvage Crew
My dad recommended two other young men that were sons of some Gideons, so we had a crew of three that would drive out from the Detroit area.
Mr. Bulldozer’s son was the foreman on the job, and he had a few rough looking guys that would run the heavy equipment. The guys from west Michigan were all at least 10 years older than us, and I remember one of the men referred to his wife as his ‘old lady’.
Every Monday morning, before the sun was up, I would pick up my two buddies, and head for Adrian to meet up with the crew from the Grand Rapids area. So with the three skinny Christian college kids and the roughneck gandy dancers we had quite a diverse work crew.
Our team would work 10 or 12-hour days Monday through Friday and go home for the weekends.
My two friends were good singers. Many times we would sing old songs like “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad”, and hymns or spirituals, as we worked down the line. We developed some good harmonies, and the older guys actually said they enjoyed hearing the songs.
My main job was to remove the metal plates and spikes. I used a large railroad spike puller (pry bar) that was about 60 inches long, and weighed over 40 lbs. Can you imagine dragging that thing around for 10 hours a day, and prying up all those spikes?
After we loosened and removed the spikes, the rails and wooden railroad ties could be hauled away. The muscles in my arms, back and shoulders became much stronger that summer. I remember throwing hundreds of metal spikes and plates into the bulldozer bucket.
A Really Hot Summer
One of the challenges was staying hydrated each day. Some days it was 80 to 90 degrees, so we each carried a gallon jug of water. Occasionally we found a patch of wild raspberries that birds had planted years earlier. That was nice.
About halfway through the summer, one of the older guys was cussing up a storm and yelling about not getting paid. Not getting paid? Apparently all the recent paychecks had bounced. I was not aware of what had happened, so I asked one of the guys — who said: “My ‘old lady’ called me and said the check was no good.” It really wasn’t bothering me much since I was banking most of my checks, and still living at home with my parents on the weekends. I had not even noticed. Later on my dad told me some of the back story… apparently “Mr. Bulldozer” had not been paying his taxes, and ran into financial trouble. Somehow it got straightened out and we kept working through the summer.
For a few weeks I had horrible allergies, and started taking two gallons (old milk jugs) of water on the job each morning. One gallon was for pouring on my head and face — to relief my itching eyes, and another gallon to drink.
Hungry Men Need Large Quantities of Food
We stayed in cheap hotels and usually had pancakes or donuts for breakfast. I remember eating a lot of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch, and McDonald’s or Burger King meals for dinner. Our crew chief paid for the evening meals and our hotel fees.
You can imagine that we were quite hungry and thirsty after working long hours in the hot sun.
On several occasions we were fortunate enough to enjoy an evening meal at an all-you-can-eat buffet. I remember us chuckling a little about the ladies scurrying around, trying to keep the buffet line stocked with food, while we ate everything in sight. Potato salad, green beans and fried chicken were disappearing faster than the ladies could keep up. That was one of my happiest memories from the summer of 1979.
Lessons Learned
- Don’t be afraid of hard work. Especially when you are young, healthy and strong. Persevere through the pain. Work steady every day, and the rewards will follow.
- Pay your taxes on time. Apparently, Mr. Bulldozer was behind on his tax bill, and the IRS garnished money from his bank account, causing our pay-checks to ‘bounce’.
- Control your expenses (business lesson). After I went back to college, I heard that Mr. Bulldozer began hiring local people (and Mexican migrant workers) to work alongside his main crew. He was saving money by not providing meals and hotel rooms for the day laborers.