Bethlehem Steel … “oh, what the hell?”

 

Once there were three shifts¬†…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

    

 

  

 

 

  Came in ore. Went out steel.

 

 

 

 All day. All night.

 

 

                  One blue methane burn off flame for every basic oxygen furnace running.

 

 

 

continued … a work in progress

 

 

 

the power house had more than half a dozen of these generators 

¬†¬†¬†¬†¬†¬†¬† ¬†…¬† could hear them across town ….

 

 

 

 real big.  a 13 mile plant takes real juice.

 

 

now they are real quiet. 

 

when the last bell rang. 

 

  people  just walked away.

 

 

 

 

 

left stuff where it was

when the last bell went off.

 

let the bosses

put their toys away.

we don’t work here anymore

its their plant now.

 

 

 

 

 

besides … who the hell needs

 work  clothes

 when there is no work.

 

&¬†nobody’s coming back.

 

what the hell.  got the kids through school. 

guess that’s somethin’, isn’t it.

             did a good days work, too.

sure made a lot of steel. what the hell.

 

did you hear?

its some kind of gambling  joint now. what the hell?

 

narrative gathered from  a series of interviews and conversations,

 

 

"Bethelehem Steel ...what the hell?"  is the creative work & property of H. Scott Heist ans all rights are reserved. 

 © H. Scott Heist 08.

It is a work in progress combining material photographed many years ago for Fortune &the Philadephia Inquirer

Magazine and  work produced later for Lehigh University's Magazine.   The material was put together via the 

good works of Ms. Deborah Sacarakis who requested these as large prints to  accompany Jay O'Callahan's 

moving theaterical story :"Pouring the Sun". do visit his website. Museum grade prints are available.

Splinter Cottage, Every Day is A Short Story, & the View from Splinter Cottage are trademarks in trade use for many

years by Scott Heist. These rights are also reserved worldwide.