I spent a good portion of my career working in Reno. When I started working in Reno, after 13 years of working in the Greater Los Angeles area, I was hired almost immediately by Oahu Interiors, a drywall company from Honolulu. They were doing the framing and drywall on the new MGM Grand Hotel & Casino. Part of their crew was made up of Hawaiin's and they were not happy workers. They didn't like the desert that surrounded the city, it was not at all like Honolulu. I had been hired to do layout work, measuring, and putting chalk lines on the floor to designate where walls would be built. After a few months of this, I heard the rumour that Oahu was getting out of their contract and moving back home.
I thought about my future and wondered about my next move. I was a member of the Carpenters Union so I decided to check in with them. That worked out well as their Business Agent already knew of me. The Local Union in Los Angeles had called them and told the Reno Local some good things about me. That was probably because I had been an Instructor in the Apprenticeship classes.
With a smile, I was told that he had a job for me and it was with C. Solari & Son's and I would work at the MGM, in the Casino portion of the project. I didn't even lose a days pay and then I was working at the Theater portion of the Casino. I didn't stay there for long as the Sup't for Solari wanted to meet me and send me to a different job. We talked and he introduced me to Carl and told us that we would be working together. He sent us to a much smaller job, one that we could finish in 2 days.
That was normal for the two of us. We worked small jobs all over the Washoe Valley and between us we managed to do them even faster than they had estimated. Carl rarely spoke while we worked and that was what I liked. Peace and quiet so that my brain could relax. After some time had passed I was told that I was needed at a new Casino Hotel, The Comstock. I showed up there the next day and was told that we were going to drop #9 hanger wire for the framing of the ceilings of the floor below. The problem with this was the Foreman didn't know how to read a reflected ceiling plan. We all stood around while he looked at those drawings. Finally, he said "Can anyone figure out these plans?" I raised my hand. Soon I was doing the layout for the walls on each floor as well as designating where to drop wires.
I had pomised myself that once we moved from L.A, I was not going to be "the guy in charge" as I had spent too many years doing just that. Yet, here I was, doing exactly what I promised not to do. That didn't last, as Solari's sup't had heard that I had some talent. Once again I was in his office, and he asked me if I could weld. Of course, I could, so he sent me up to the Panel factory and I was put to work welding studs and track together. The factory was a WWll relic and it had been taken apart at Stead Air Force base and moved to this spot, on the outskirts of Reno. It was huge! It had been a hangar at one time. But it did not have an AC or heater. In the winter, we closed the big door and brought in a propane space heater plus some fans to blow the heat towards us. It did not work. The hanger had a 30 foot ceiling and that was where the heat was going. Pretty soon we were wearing our heaviest clothes and gloves. We had to wear a welding hood and that shut out any possible hats upon our heads.
It was some of these conditions that contributed to my C.O.P.D. Our welding hoods collected the smoke from burning the paint on the studs as we put these panels together and we also burned trash and wood in a large barrel that we kept close by. At the end of the day, I could taste the odor of the smoke.
Finally, after a month or more, I was told that the new casino, The Money Tree, would have panels to make up the outer walls and I would have to do the measuring for the construction of the panels. That sounded better than inhaling smoke all day, so I grabbed some paper and a tape measure and drove downtown to look at the job and take some measurements.
At this time, there were Casino jobs everywhere as the owners and the city had decided that they should all finish and open on the same day. Solari had the contracts on all of them and we told our crews that instead of going home at the end of the day, they should check in with the foreman at any of those jobs and they could get another 8 hours of work plus pay. A few times I caught sight of one of my crew sleeping on the the floor of another casino.
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