Working in a man's world.

Every time I say that or hear someone else say that,

it brings me to the song that James Brown sang..

It's a man's world... Just the one line... don't know

what the rest of the words are.

Working in a man's world runs thru our family.

First is my daughter's... each one works in a

job that usually is done by a man.  All 4 of them

at one time or another has had that kind of job.

Me, I use to work with my husband who died in 1986,

and we smashed cars for a living..  My job was to set

them on fire, so we could reach in and pull the wire

harness out.. It was copper wire. Also it burnt the

seats and left the metal... Then we would smash it,

load it up on the truck and take them to Seattle.

My job was, as I said.. burn the cars.. also pull

out the wire... and when loading them, I would

stand on the top of the cab and line up the car

we were loading so it was straight, and then give

the signal to lower the car on top of the previous

one.  One time when my husband was out of town,

he called and said he was heading back home to

start a load... So with his partner, I smashed 7

cars, so they were ready to load. Our smasher

was a card table piece of iron.. about 4 or 6 inches

thick. It was connected to a cable, which was on

pulleys.  There was a wheel that the cable would

wind up on.. and then I would hit the lever and it

would fly down on top of the car... By moving around

the car, I would have it all about 3 feet high, when

done...

My mother, was well known for being a woman fishing

net seamstress.  She would sting two white fishing nets

thru our living room in the winter.. and sew them together.

They would be about 50 feet long.  They were used for

trapping fish by a commercial fisherman. And in the summer,

they would drop the nets in to the tar pit.  And during the

summer they would bring back difference nets.. (they

had about 3 of them) and string them out across the field.

She would stand out there all day, going over each section,

finding the holes and repair them..  This brought her a

very dark tan and skin that was almost like leather. Giving

her a round look the rest of her life.  This went on for about

10 years.  She was the only known woman net seamstress

on the East Coast.

My grandmother, was a teacher... while there were some

women teachers in her time..  most were men, especially

when they were on an island.. She taught at Prudence Island

first and then Jamestown.

So we come from a long line of "working in a man's world".

By the way, I just went and checked out the words to that

song.. and like one of the lines... 

This is a mans world
But it would be nothing, nothing
Not one little thing
Without a women or a girl

that is very true.. at least in our family...

I help load this.. my job was to stand on the cab and hold the car that is held in the air.. and
make sure it is straight with the rest of the load, before I nod my head to have it lowered... 
I had smashed 3/4 of this load while Marv was out of state... already to be loaded and then he smashed the rest.