coal barge’s daughter August 20, 2007
Posted by kelvicious in : pgh , trackbacki had lunch with someone yesterday who, in the course of conversation, mentioned that two of his clients work on coal barges.
“dream job!” i shouted. he raised his eyebrow and asked if i was being funny.
not at all, i told him - although i do realize that i’m romanticizing the job: when i think about working on a barge, i think about the view of the city from the river, crunching through sheets of ice in the winter, waving to kids on the shore.
this perspective is, of course, ridiculous. the job is dangerous and requires years of training. but if i had the muscle, and wasn’t such a baby about the cold (and hard physical labor), i’d do it.
Comments»
Have you seen the Sebak documentary about the rivers? He goes on one of them . . . it’s mildly interesting, mostly in a “Look at those people from 1988!” sort of way. I’d be interested in seeing how it’s changed in the almost-20 years since that film was made. For one thing, I’m betting the barge marm who makes the hot roast beef sammiches is dead and they didn’t replace her.
seen it! i wanted to add something to my post about the large marge sarge of the barge workin’ in the kitchen, but forgot.
i imagine eating six egg omlets and hash as the city mosies by.