Monday, August 17, 2015

The Electrical Apprentice Story


The Electricians Apprentice Story
Written 04/2000 and Rewritten and condensed 08/2019
Howard Yasgar


This true story took place in 1959, when I was attending New Haven State Teachers College.
I had a difficult decision to make.
It was in my second year of teachers college, and we were told we would be required to go out and do substitute teaching. 
I felt that if I had to teach students that were like myself, I would probably kill one of them.
After a talk with my guidance councilor, she agreed that teaching probably wasn’t for me.
Actually I think the real reason I wanted to quit was that I was anxious to get out into the world and earn some real money.
I felt that my father was doing pretty good financially, he was a Journeyman Electrician, and also was a teacher in the Local 90 Electrical workers union in New Haven.
Of course dad said I was foolish, and he didn’t like the idea of my quitting college at all.
I told him I wanted to make some big money as a union electrician just like he did.
Eventually, dad relented and said he would get me in the Electrical Union as an apprentice. 
I couldn’t have been happier, I was now on the road to riches.
The first job they sent me to was working up on scaffolding and hanging florescent light fixtures.
Guess what, it was for a new addition to New Haven State Teachers College, the very same College I had just quit.
As I hung the fixtures, all my former classmates recognized me and waved as they went to their classes.
All the cat calls eventually stopped as the contractor sent me to downtown New haven where a new 16 floor apartment building called University Towers was being built.
I knew that working as an electricians helper on a major construction project had to be interesting work.
Boy did I have a lot to learn. 
Before each concrete floor was poured, the electricians had to put in all the electrical conduit first.     So my first job was down on the ground floor, pre bending hundreds of pieces of metal conduit. 
Once a bundle of  conduit was properly bent, a crane lifted it up to whatever floor the electricians were working on. 
The reason a crane was needed was because each bundle of conduit weighed from 150 lbs. to 250 lbs.
Eventually the construction reached the 16th floor, and that was the day that the lifting crane broke down.              
I wanted to help, I kind of felt that everyone depended on me.
As the crane remained broken, I was sure my efforts would be appreciated.
I hefted a 200 lb. bundle of conduit on my shoulders and I started climbing up the stairs to the 16th floor.
When I reached the 16th. Floor, I dropped the bundle of conduit right where it was needed, but I found I couldn’t straighten up my back, I was bent over like a hunchback. 
It took several weeks to recover, but eventually I was back again on the ground floor bending conduit.
One day I spotted the company business agent walking by, and I saw it as my opportunity.
When I got his attention, I said that I have been working for your company for several months and I have never received a raise.
He said, “Son, I have been watching you, you are doing a good job, He also said, I also know your dad, very well, please give him my best regards”.
“By the way he said, how much are you earning”?  $1.37 per hour I said.
Boy did I feel good, the business agent even knew my father.
Friday couldn’t come faster, I couldn’t wait as they handed out the paycheck envelopes.
I ripped my envelope open, my new hourly  pay was $1.37. ½ per hour. He had given me a ½ cent per hour raise.
The very next week I signed up with the University of New Haven, I couldn’t do it fast enough.
Boy were my mom and dad happy.  
  
                                                  

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