The funny thing happened while I was working at the shipyard in South San Francisco. At the shipyard, they only had a wide launching ramp. When they launched ships, they couldn’t launch them stern first which was the usual way of doing it. So, they used to launch ships sideways.

One day at my father or to watch them launch a new ship.

When the ship came down the ramp you should have seen the tidal wave as the ship it’s the water! It was about just high.

There was a car there with the running board. My father and I jumped onto that running board, but when the wave hit us we get drenched up to our armpits.

After that, they wouldn’t let anyone stand there.

It was quite a sight to see that ship coming down into the water sideways!


Some Fast Thinking Saves My Job

When I left that job, I went over to Moore dry docks, who were also ship builders. My friend there, Willie, was one of the best welders I had ever seen. He just had a knack for it.

One day, we’re inside the bulkhead of the ship, but there was no top on the bulkhead. It was like a big box.

Willie and I were in their standing around in the sun, goofing off.

All of a sudden Mr. Moore, the owner of the shipyard, showed up.

I told Willie: “we’re trapped! We can’t get out of here.”

We weren’t doing anything. Mr. Moore had this habit of going around and catching people. If they were giving off, they would be fired on the spot.

I said: “let me handle this Willie.”

The ship had an expansion joined in it that was about two or 3 in. wide. Mr. Moore came over to us look to down and said: “what you’ve always doing down there?”

I said: “maybe you could help us out, Mr. Moore.”

I showed him the expansion joint and I told him that it was too big to put in a Dutchman, which was a filler.

Mr. Moore said “I think you boys can handle it.” He went away.

I said: “thank god! We just made a narrow escape!”


Bending the Rules at the University of California

I worked at the University of California

That was a great place to work. They were self sufficient. They did all their own machine work, foundry work, galvanizing.

We weren’t allowed to smoke in there, but some of the guys would stand around next to the galvanizing equipment. The galvanizing equipment put out a lot of smoke, and it covered the smoke from the cigarettes the guys were smoking.

You never hear me complain, I tell you, I had a lot of good breaks.