Memories from the Alaskan Pipeline

      It was the summer of 1975, work in the lower 48 was terrible and a gas shortage was causing a lot of jobs to be shut down, and jobs were hard come by. I decided to give Alaska a try, for if I stayed home I would surely go broke soon. There was notice's saying work was not that good now and it is so expensive to live, don't come up as many people are not working and you will go broke up there with the high costs. So the stubborn person I am, I borrowed some money from my brother who was in the navy and I bought a one way ticket to Fairbanks Alaska. On the day I arrived I went to the union hiring hall and put my name on the "C" list at number 1283. I had no idea of what it would take to get a job as there was like 50 pages of names on the "A" List (that's the residents and people with over 3 straight years with hours worked. On the "B" list was those in their third year, and there were a lot of them also. In order to get off the "C" list I needed to work in 2 years straight. After signing up at the union hall I went to find a place to stay. Just down the street was a hotel called the Alaskan Motor Inn. It was $45 a night for a single room that was just barely big enough for a bed and chair; it did have a bathroom. This was a very cheap room for many had to pay a lot more I just hit it lucky. I had no idea what was about to happen but I kept praying that I would be able to find something as money would not last long and I left my wife and 2 children home in Arizona, and I did not have a return ticket.

      After I had been there for 2 weeks and no sign of work I was beginning to get nervous. I made friends with the night clerk at the hotel; we would sit and talk all night about everything under the sun. Then one day he finally got the job he was waiting for and was going to leave. He asked me if I would like to have his job as he was going to ask the hotel owners if they would like to hire me. I was so happy as money was about to run out. God must have been watching over me, I started work the next night and he showed me what to do. I received a free area in which to sleep in the basement where it was nice and warm, and enough money to live on plus send some home to my family. I worked all-night and slept during the day while waiting to get a job. While working at the hotel I met many men who were trying to find work, many went home broke. I also met a lot of the locals who have lived there for years. They used to call the pipeline workers lower 48ers, or outsider's. Then the hookers and rift raft that followed the money showed up and the town was not safe anymore. Robberies, muggings, and everything else was starting to run wild and the local police could not keep up as the town was growing so fast and people from every walk of life was descending on Fairbanks looking for work or a quick buck.

      I spent the next 14 weeks working and sending money home to my family before I finally got my first job. On a Saturday morning in November I put a bid in on a job and got it. No one knew just what the job was except it was on the North Slope for a company call ACI. I had to go to their headquarters there in town and get my paper work and then go to the arctic cold weather-training center at Fort Wainwright Air Force Base. I spent the next day in 8 hours of classes so I could work up north in Prudhoe Bay, right on the Arctic Ocean. The cold weather training was very intense they even checked our hearing, eyesight, and for physical disabilities. The hearing was for when we wear our arctic gear we can not see that well and all the equipment have alarms on them so we can hear them and not get ran over. Working in the extreme temperatures is very hard on the human body, so one must be in very good shape. I said my good byes to the hotel owners and thanked them for letting me work there. They were as happy for me as I was to have a chance to say I worked in Alaska. I also went to all the places that I have made friends at and told them I was going up north to work in the oil fields. I called my wife and told her I had a job and hopefully it will last for awhile then I can come home again for a visit. I had already bought my parka but I had to buy my down paints. A guy who was in the air force gave me my bunny boots, as he was taking my place at the hotel for some extra money, that was a super surprise as they cost over 150 dollars to buy. They would not let anyone go to work unless you have the gear to survive in. Since many did not have the clothing the let us buy it and it came out of our first few paychecks. Then I was off to my job on the North Slope right on the edge of the Arctic Ocean.