"Whenever someone called me a Communist, I figured I was doing something right."

[Manifestor_of_Light]

Dad was a union organizer for the Oil Chemical and Atomic Workers.

This is what he said about the 1930s and the hell they went through trying to get basic rights like 40 hour weeks and collective bargaining. When they had union meetings they had to notify the local sheriff!!!!!

The working stiffs who didn't get why the union helped them were all "suckbutts" (thanks Dad for inventing that word!) who were hoping to be promoted into management where they wouldn't be one of those dirty hourly workers anymore. The ones who vote against their own interests just KNOW they will be promoted if they brown nose.

Dad was not only a pipefitter, he went to law school on the G.I. Bill. For fifteen years he worked a rotating shift at the refinery and also practiced law. We did father-daughter bonding on the shopping trips to the plumbing supply house.


Thanks Dad! 1911-2000.

[knowbody0]

1. thanks to your dad from me too!

my grandfather was another union guy. back in his day, the thugs rode in on horseback and beat them with metal bars. many were killed. they fought so hard for their rights, and so many benefited from their fight. you just know they are screaming from their graves about our todays.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

2. His co-organizer's granddaughter is a lifelong friend of mine.

This is a multigenerational family friendship. Dad knew my friend's grandfather as a fellow organizer from the 1940s. I have a picture of them together after they raised money for the widows and orphans when Texas City blew up in 1947.

And my friend has "Dear Comrade" letters that her grandparents got from Norman Thomas!!

Nowadays nobody knows who he was. Dad voted for Norman Thomas for president in 1932, because there was no real difference in the platforms of Hoover and Roosevelt. Everything Roosevelt enacted was in the Socialist platform of Norman Thomas.