Apr. 03, 2007 - 15:42 MDT

NOW

In 1950 after a trek cross country from Denver, nursing an old Chevy sedan, I arrived in Oldsmar, Florida where Heather and the kids had settled before she was to give birth to our next child.

Oldsmar was a sleepy little town, laid out and platted by Mr. Olds of automotive fame, a hotel building was in the construction phase, when the Great Depression hit.

I got a job, helping paint some houses, then bought a lawn mower and mowed lawns, one of which was for the plant superintendent of the power plant down on Booth Point, just south of town.

I wasn't making quite enough to keep things at a comfort level so I went on into Tampa and found work on the point down there in a shipyard where they were reconditioning Liberty Ships.

Hot summer sun on this Coloradan was still doing a job on me even though I had been working out of doors for a time.

The job on the ship was near the end, and I was put with the crew who were painting the forepeak hold with Portland cement. I was about the fourth level down, and had to cope with my own sloppy drips and splashes plus the cement solution dripping down from above.

After the first few days my shoulders, upper arms, front of my thighs and around where my belt pressed became open sores. My body didn't like that exposure a bit.

About the time we finished painting the forepeak hold (which would be used for a water tank I heard) the ship was finished and we were told we would be called when the next one was in drydock.

A couple of days of clean clothes (few as possible) I was in pretty good shape, so I went hunting in the town. Having worked in a railroad freight house during World War Two, I checked a truck line and applied. The next day I was wheeling freight into semi-trailers. Boss soon had me checking freight and it looked to me that I would have a job for a long time there.

The power plant down on the point was pretty new then, one day my friend in town told me that the super from the power plant recommended that I put in an application to work there. So I did and was hired.

It was two units, two boilers and turbine generators, about ten stories. I was started out as an auxiliary operator and worked in the "basement" ground floor below the control room where switchboard and boiler operator positions were and the turbines were.

I learned soon how to keep the logbook of what went on while I was on shift.

During this time construction was putting finishing touches on the second unit (which was in full operation)and I was learning how to check pressures and temperatures on various pieces of equipment on that floor. I began to get an idea of how complex a steam plant was then.

The water analyst was going into military service and that job came open, fat, dumb and happy I bid on it. And got the position as Junior Water Analyst. I learned later that many guys on the system failed to bid on the job because they didn't like the Junior bit. When the posting came for Water Analyst I bid again and due to the fact I was already working the job, it was given to me.

So my education began in learning the complexities of the steam/water cycle in a power plant.

Our laboratory chemical ceramics were Coors made, I found out that they were famous for their ceramics. Took this clumsy guy some time to learn to measure water and chemicals accurately and how to interpret the tests I ran.

One thing I found out early on was that "pure" water does not conduct electricity, an interesting fact to me. That fact was used in conducting tests on boiler water on a little machine that read out the mhos of the water, it was the reverse of ohms giving a check on how many impurities were in the water.

I loved that job, but when the job of instrument mechanic came open I bid on it and the guys up country dropped the ball again, so the job was mine.

My job became complicated no end, having to learn the most intricate details of a steam plant, how to repair and adjust instruments, and also how to wash down the air heaters, a very hot messy job.

I was in my element there, liked the people I worked with including my supervisors.

The plant was at the head end of Old Tampa Bay, had an oyster bar out in the water a short distance from the plant, the steam from the boilers was condensed by running over tubes that were being flushed with sea water. No contact between the two. So there was an intake canal where the sea water came in to the intake pumps. I used to go there at night and fish. The intake water ran through traveling screens so that seaweed and big stuff wasn't drawn in. As the screens were rotated periodically they were washed by sprayed water, that effluent went into the discharge canal through a flume. I soon learned to go out and run the screens, grab shrimp and put them in a bucket of sea water. Getting enough of the critters, I would go up to the control room where the boiler operators had a hot plate behind the control board and they would boil them and call me when the shrimp were ready.

I loved the people of Oldsmar, the folks I worked with and the company I worked for.

Along the way we moved into Tampa (about 15 miles away) due to better schooling for the kids, I still worked at the plant.

Like all good things it eventually came to an end for me, we decided to move back to Denver to be close to our folks who were aging and ailing. So we came home.

I was Googling around today and put the plant into the query and found out that it was due to be imploded in 2006 as being antiquated. But, in my heart it remains, though only a memory NOW . . . . . . . . . . . .

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