Tuesday, May 12, 2009

My Dad the Iron Worker
My dad passed away when I was 20 years old, but I came across these photos a couple of days ago that reminded me of him. He was an iron worker, or structural steel worker. He was the one that built steel high rises, bridges and more. He didn't wear any kind of safety harness and walked 10 or 20 stories above the ground on steel I-beams that weren't more than a few inches wide.

Can you imagine that? There's no way I could even think of doing that, even when I was young and irresponsible. My mom said she saw him working on a high rise once and never went to see him at work again because it made her so nervous to see him up so high.

He tried to quit construction work at one point when his brother was killed on a construction site, but work was hard to come by and the money was great, so he went back to it. He was often the foreman or superintendent on the jobs he worked. We've heard many accounts of what a great, responsible, caring boss he was.

These photos really make me appreciate the risks he took to provide for his family.

2 comments:

Amy T Schubert said...

cool.
pictures of dad at work aren't nearly as cool.
pictures of Andrew at work are .. :)

Ted said...

Those are some amazing photos - I just can't imagine doing that!

And I'd like to see the pictures of Terry at work...for the nights I need help falling asleep.