Rain and Money

The rain we have been seeing for the past few months reminded me that some of the memories of my career should include the fact that weather, especially rain, definitely affected my paycheck…something that “office types” or “suits” didn’t have to worry about. When it rained like it has recently, the contractor couldn’t get decent soil compaction test results and so they couldn’t pour concrete. Without concrete in place, building stopped. High rises or homes, it was all the same.

You quickly learned to value a job that would take you through the late winter and early spring months. And when you were out of work, you joined a large group of construction workers that were also looking for work.

I only used my unemployment benefits one time. And I hated it. I know it doesn’t make sense…the benefits are there for you to use! They belong to you. You had worked for them. But it was a cultural thing. Unemployment was to be avoided. And so I would go searching for piece work in the housing market. And since there were so many out of work, the price being paid dropped to a level where you wondered why you should bother? Some times you could make more money from unemployment and avoid the hassle of deadbeat contractors and long hours.  

I remember finding a small tract of homes in the Carson area; there weren’t more than about 20 houses and only a few drywallers had found the tract, so it could last for a few weeks. They were paying 1-7/8 cents a foot. That was about 85 cents a sheet for a 4x12 sheet of drywall. More math: I could install about 1700 square feet a day in those particular houses. That adds up to about $32 dollars. And I had to work from 6:30 to 6 to get it done. You had to leave when you couldn’t see to nail. Hourly wages at the time were about $6 an hour; if you could get a job.

(Alex had told me that in the “old days”, when getting a job was tough, he had followed the drywall supply trucks from the supply yard to the jobs, hoping to talk his way into a job. And that had worked for me. I had spotted a truck full of drywall and followed it to the tract in Carson.)