A Job I Used to Have...

On a recent outing with grand children we went to the Texas Forestry Museum in Lufkin, Tx. It has a great kids room and a walking/play area trail out back. There are some renovations and changing of exhibits going on so things look like they are only going to get more interesting. On of the exhibits under construction concerns the history of the old paper mill. I look forward to this since I worked there from 1978-2004 and I made a photo of this old photo of a roll handler at work. 

This was a job I had as I worked my way up the union job chain of progression. I was in the old finishing and shipping department. You started out sweeping the warehouse and picking up paper, a job called extra man and roll handling was the second job up the ladder. The mill was in operation 1939-2004, historically significant because it was the first mill to make paper from southern pine and I'm guessing this photo was made in the 40s, 50s or possibly 60s. By the time I got there this job was petty much still the same including how the guys dressed. This location is in front of the old No. 1 paper machine looking into the machine shop. 

From the looks of that roll of paper it's what we called a cull. The uneven end means something went wrong during the winding process. either way the roll handler still has to move the paper which was done by rolling it up on a slide trolley board set in the floor and pushing it over in from of an elevator that would take the paper down to a conveyor belt to be wrapped. This could be a bad job depending on the number of rolls per set and the speed of production that day. 

In the late 70s for a brief period the No. 2 paper machine was the fastest in the world and I have seen grown men quit the roll handling job after about 45 minutes of work. This was in the good old days where there was the possibility of another job to be had just across town. I have forgotten but I would guess in the late 70s to early 80s roll handling might have paid $5 to $7 an hour. I was too dumb to quit and I stuck it out to rise to the next job in line which was wrapping the rolls of paper for shipment. Wrapping was it's own kind of hell but I'll spare the details till a photo surfaces. 

As always things change and jobs get combined when companies are trying to survive in a competitive market place and that's what happen to this job in the late 90s and 2000s. It was not enough and the mill shut down in 2004. I went on to another good career and the mill is just about torn down now.   

Just a few more photos of the kids at play in the Forestry Museum. 

Play a train song. East Texas is crisscrossed with old train embankments where the trees were hauled from the woods. The old tram in the Canyon area of Lake Sam Rayburn is a great structure where lots of fish hang out. What would I have done without the timber industry? 

I look forward to the opening of the Papermill exhibit. My mom was on the committee when the mill itself had a small history exhibit located onsite and hopefully some of the preservation work she did might show up in the new display. 

Hopefully I won't have to work a roll handling job again.