“San Diego”

The First National Bank would soon be the tallest building in San Diego. First National had 30 landings, six 700 FPM gearless passenger cars, one 500 FPM gearless service car and one 3 stop vault elevator.

Material had to be off loaded and stored quickly. First came a semi loaded with rail brackets in 55 gallon drums, and then came the first of several flat bed trailers with the rails. All of this material had to be unloaded and stored under cover on the same day it arrived. The barrels of rail brackets were unloaded and stored. We used hand trucks to roll the barrels on-to the outside material hoist to be distributed on the upper landings. The first shipment of rails was unloaded off the flatbed using the building derrick, than placed on dollies and snaked into the building. We had to maneuver around all matter of obstacles to get as close to the hoist ways as possible. During all the unloading, storing and distribution of material the class structure between helpers was non-existent. We all had to bust our ass’s to get the job done.

Our crew to start consisted of 2 crews of local San Diego guys and then Bud along with 2 crews from LA. San Diego was a great city and still had a small town atmosphere. The LA guys were used to working big jobs like 1st National and we prided ourselves on how hard we worked and played.  The locals, on the other hand, came off the out-of-work list for the San Diego Chapter of Local 18. Work came for them when a major company came to town for large elevator installations or when the smaller independent companies got busy and needed extra help. The local companies tended to be very tight nit and kept family members and friends employed first. The local guys were good mechanics, a little older and definitely not used to working for a Forman like Bud.

The local guys had “Home Field Advantage” and could go home at night for dinner, sleep in their own bed and had a wife to pack their lunch. We on the other hand ate lunch off the gut wagon, drank together, ate dinner in greasy spoons and all lived in the same place.

We found lodging up the street from first national in a 1 star establishment called the “New Pantlin Hotel”. You can imagine what the “Old Pantlin” was like. Checking in and riding up to our room with the rest of our crew was like my first skip ride at FOB. Why in the hell did all of those big elevator men want to get on this little “Early American” phone booth sized elevator at the same time? I waited for it to come back and get me.

First off and of the utmost urgency, we had to locate a watering hole with pool tables and catered to hard Hats like ourselves. In the interim we hung out at a gin mill across the street from the hotel. It was frequented by nice, quiet and very well behaved locals. In just a few weeks our crew would change all that. We were finally 86′ed. Just 4 blocks down B Street our scouts found a beer joint to our liking. After the crew was kicked out a few of us were still able to drop in for an occasional late night pool game and night cap.