April 12, 1963 The Frances Hubbard Diaries

12 April, 1963

Friday, Sunny and warmer 40.  Kids home for Easter vacation. We went to Oneonta and got the girl's shoes and hats. We went to Middleburg at night to the Gospel service.  Clifton was called from the hall to go to work Monday at Poughkeepsie.

Comment:  Good news for Dad.  The "hall" that called was the hall of the International Union Of Operating Engineers of which Dad was a long-time member.  Poughkeepsie is about a 2-hour drive from Hubbard Hill so Dad will commute for 4 hours a day plus probably work 10 hours a day, six days a week.  The starting time will be anywhere from 6 to 8 am, so he will have to leave the house at either 4am or 6am.  They do not have dairy cows now, but when they did, that would entail him helping Mom, LaVerne and I start the morning milking before he left.  For an early start, he would get up at 3am or so.  Here is a previous post about Dad that talks about his work:  

Solidarity Forever
An Operating Engineer was what my dad was called 
He ran the big equipment, and I guess he drove them all
Dozers, graders, drag-line cranes, he worked ten hours a day
From spring through fall, six days a week, he drew good union pay

He’d usually come home close to dark, all sunburned, cloaked with dust 
Us kids would all race down the hill, to greet him, to be first 
He’d stop the car and pick us up, on fenders up we’d ride 
We hung from running boards and doors, rising like the tide

Euclid scrapers, high-speed pumps, he “sloped” with Cat D8s 
Through parts of west New England and all through New York State 
He worked the New York Thruway and Route One-Forty-Five, 
Milking cows at four am to keep the farm alive

In summer’s dust and searing sun his lips and hands would crack, 
And he’d rub in Bag Balm Ointment that he carried in a sack 
In winter’s numbing wind and cold, he stood ten hours a day 
To watch an air compressor pump water from a quay

We’d go to work with him sometimes when work sites were nearby
And ride the big equipment, it was dusty, hot and dry
LaVerne and I and sometimes Doug would go and spend the day 
With diesel fumes & roaring “Eucs” as dozers pushed away

And though he had his issues, he was held in high regard 
And I never heard him once complain ‘bout working so damned hard. 
When someone said I looked like him at a Hill reunion chat 
Tom O’Hara softly said, “Well, there’s nothing wrong with that”.

And though I’m not religious, as all friends will attest 
Here’s a spiritual iota to which I must confess 
Sometimes when summer’s thunder clouds are roiling up on high 
I think of Dad on his big D8, “sloping” in the sky...
Sometimes when summer’s thunder clouds are roiling up on high I think of Dad on his big D8, “sloping” in the sky.