Thursday, May 2, 2013
It was July 1967 and I was placed in The Rail Mill to drudge out another summer in Algoma Steel. It would be my last summer there – five years of summer employment in between five years of university, preparing to be a teacher. My job that day was to turn rails on a hotbed of white rails. I had just come from a stag and seven beer made me feel a bit woozy in the incredible heat. I looked up at the men in the pulpit of that monstrous machine that rolled those baring hot rails to my feet to turn. I looked up and saw a hand gesturing at me to come up to the pulpit. Students were “never” summoned to the pulpit. It was Ron Francis himself- the operator- waving me up to the air conditioned pulpit. He sat me down and offered me a cold glass of water. It wasn’t the first time he had done that for me. This was my fifth summer working in The Rail Mill. Ron had become my mentor in my first year there. He was well-respected by all of his fellow workers. He was admired by all and he was as generous as he was knowledgeable about life. He was professional in his work and was regarded as a leader in The Rail Mill. If he was alive, he probably might remember me if you asked him if he remembered the only kid who got to work on his hotbed five years in a row. (Actually it was Ken Leask – day foreman who asked for me every May). I remember some of Ron’s co-workers – Lou Cote, Gunner Sandvick, Russ Francis. That was a great “crew”, headed in spirit, by a wonderful man --- RON FRANCIS. I thank Ron and all the rest of them for making my five summers in the Rail Mill more than just than bearable. In fact … I owe them… Ray Socchia Hong Kong 42 – I just retired from teaching after 42 years in Canada, Korea and China (I’m 67) 41 - the number if years my dad worked at Algoma Steel Bar and Strip. He died 1982 – two days “before” his first pension cheque arrived 40 - the number of years Ron Francis worked at Algoma Steel. (small world)
