This is a unique work for several reasons. There are very few books ever written about the life of carpenters, and even fewer about the dangerous world of heavy construction. Another singular thread in the book is that it describes what it's like to become an apprentice in a trade union right in the middle of the turbulent Bay Area Sixties. On that level it's a coming-of-age narrative...a
buildings-roman
if you will.
The book moves from job to job touching particularly on very significant projects in San Francisco: the Palace of Fine Arts, St. Mary's Cathedral, Moscone Center and the Unitarian Church. There's a motif of s
tories
, both narrative - and as in a high-rise; but also interchapters of reflection on the nature of the trade; for example, on the way that tools and words fuse for a young poet absorbing the lexicon of building.
On some jobs the salient memories have to do with the technical wonders...like a complex roof structure on a cathedral. On others, it's the particular dynamic of a crew finding its voice as union brothers. Some chapters describe a near-death experience, or a racially-charged confrontation. And every story reveals the kinds of people who did this work half a century ago, how they coped with the outer world of the war in Vietnam, and the cultural rebellion...while living a life of anonymous hard labor.
Journeyman's Dues
does not include much architectural or historical background about these projects. There are plenty of books about civic monuments but not many about what it felt like to ply the trades that built it all. Hence the title, the recognition of
dues paid
. May the carpenters who read this enjoy my yarns while remembering twenty of their own; and for those who are tasting our life for the first time…I hope it furthers
understanding
.