Back Harrison Ave                    Back to Jobs
State University of New York at Albany (SUNY Albany)
The scaffolding used to pour columns between the buildings    (Albany Times Union photo)	The three story columns    (Albany Times Union photo)
In the summer of 1969 between High School and college my Uncle Marty got me a job working as a common laborer on the construction of one of the dorm quads at the State  University at Albany. It was a union job but I worked the summer as a scab because Marty was the union shop Stewart. I believe Timmy Tipple  also from Bethlehem worked it as a scab for the management. Tit for tat I guess. At least a few of the other worker new I was a scab and would jokingly ask to see my union card. I would always tell them I left it home and would try to remember to bring it in the next day. After my few months working there many of them that  told me I should join the union and stay on. They were surprised how hard I worked especially since my uncle was the Stewart and my job was pretty much guaranteed. I couldn't because I had to go to college to get a 2S deferment from the Viet Nam draft. The next year I pulled a draft lottery number of 24 and would have been drafted if I weren't in college.      The company building the quad was the Planet Construction Company out of New York City. I believe it was the southeast quad and maybe the last of the four to be built. The central 22 story dorm tower was surrounded by  three story buildings forming a courtyard around the tower. I believe the tower had only reached about half way when I left for school to become a civil engineer. I took basic engineering classes for a few semesters at Hudson Valley Community College before dropping out to join the Navy. I had started work in the St Peter's Hospital cafeteria a few years earlier at $1.55 an hour. The job working as a common laborer paid $4.45 an hour. Damn good money at the time for an unskilled job.       As a laborer it seemed that when it was a nice day I'd be digging ditches in the sub basement but when it was hot or raining I would be out in it striping forms and stacking lumber.  I remember we had a dump truck that you had to get under and hit the shaft with a hammer to get it to engage and dump. Seems in the sub basement you would dig a ditch for the plumbers to lay pipe. You would then fill it in and tamp it down with a gas powered tamping device. Almost without fail the electricians would come by the next day and want you to re dig it for them to lay their conduit. I tried drinking a few beers with lunch the first day but found that made the afternoon hell. For the first week I was in bed by about six in the evening because I was so tired      One thing I still remember almost fifty years latter is stripping the forms that were used to flute or flair the top of three story columns. The buildings forming the outside of the courtyard had columns between the them which needed three story wooden scaffolding built to build the forms around the top of the columns. They ended up basically building a plywood floor between the buildings. After the concrete was poured and dried everything had to be taken apart. The forms were removed by crane and reused while the two by four and plywood structure was disassembled and removed by hand. Walking on stringers carrying a 4x8 foot sheet of plywood was fun, especially in the wind. I remember dancing across the two by fours (probably more like 4x6s or larger) I was walking on until reaching the edge where I had to let the plywood go or try to use it as parachute, yelling lookout below and watching it flutter to the ground. I was supposed to be stacking them in the corner of the wood deck for a crane to bring down.      $4.45 an hour in 1969 is the best money I've ever made (straight time hourly). Even after about two years of college, a two year intensive Navy computer electronics school and nearly forty years of experience as a skilled technician/engineer I was only making $30 and hour in 2010 which with inflation is much less. Of course on my last job after three years I was making the same money I had been making six years before that when I had quit the previous one. I was grossly under paid but was using the job as a vehicle to get un employment when I was refused a security clearance after three years of working there. I received 65 weeks of unemployment but terminated it before the 99 week maximum because I felt guilty because I was not looking for a job.
Model of the campus    (Albany Times Union photo)	Under construction      (Albany Times Union photo)
	All pictures                          are from the online Albany Times Union newspaper 11/29/18
Back Harrison Ave                   Back to Jobs