1993 Cornell Pipe Shop

I was finally working at the trade again, although I was laid off the first 5 months of 1993. I had a 2 year old daughter who was being taken care of by her paternal grandmother. This woman is a saint! She has always taken care of children and seemed to have 2 or more underfoot at all times. She was also taking care of her mother in law who was very ill as well as checking in on her own mother who lived in the house behind her. In between all this, she cooked and canned and knitted. I don’t think I would have been able to stay working if I hadn’t had her support. I didn’t get another job until May of 1993. It was at the cheese factory in Campbell again. It lasted about 6 weeks and to be honest wasn’t really memorable. Some jobs are just jobs. Immediately afterwards I was hired on for the Cornell University pipe shop. My old foreman, Mark R, had requested me! I love working at Cornell for the pipe shop. Everyday is different. The buildings at Cornell are either super new and hi-tech or incredibly old, but beautiful. Each one presents its own challenge. One job I did was to run sprinkler lines in one of the oldest buildings, Morrill Hall. Because they didn’t want to change the exterior of the building, they had built rooms inside rooms, leaving a 2 foot space around the perimeter that was not protected in case of fire. I found all kinds of old newspapers and strange objects back there! I also did some work in the Law School Building which is Myron Taylor Hall. I was working with Maynard R. an old timer who knew every nook and cranny of the campus especially the dining facilities. We would pull into the parking area behind Hughes Dining Hall every morning at 9:30. The cafeteria ladies all loved Maynard and would pile our plates high and the bill would always be $2! I swear I gained 10 lbs working with him. We earned our breakfasts, I promise. They had renovated the chilled water system in the building about 5 years before, but seemed to continually be having problems with the new system. We were supposed to cut into some of the main lines and install valves, so we could flush the system. We did that and it didn’t seem to help some of the rooms. So we started flushing each individual unit. As I looked at the unit piping, I realized that the strainer had been installed backwards allowing the system to clog more easily than it should. Well, I had to go to talk to all the engineers and point out the problem. They agreed with me. It was decided that I would get to go to each and every unit in the building and trouble shoot it. This meant flushing each coil, checking each strainer, and making sure everything was working properly. That gave me 6 months of work all in one building. I made so many people happy who had never had A/C that worked properly before. From secretaries to lawyers, they all loved to watch me work. Many were fascinated that a woman was doing the job, but most were just happy to get cool! So happy that they even drafted my will for me for free! But as all good jobs do this one ended and I was looking for work again.