The blizzard of January 1978 was a huge storm mostly on the east coast, but it clipped the southeast side of Chicago with 14 inches of snow and plenty of wind. I remember it because I worked 32 hours. It was January 26-27th, two weeks after being hired at Interlake.
I was still in coal handling and sent to the mixer. There, the coal would be blended with different coals from different parts of the country. I remember West Virginia coal was considered the best, while Illinois coal was one of the dirtiest. The mixer was a building with large coal bins, each holding a different type of coal. On top of the mixer, there was a conveyor belt that ran the coal up there. It was called ‘the whistle’ on top. They called it that because the operator would contact (‘whistle’ for) the e-man [Euclid operator] on the ground to let him know what coal he needed. The e-man was out in the coal fields where Euclids would scoop up coal to bring to the mixer.
Another part of coal handling was the pulverizer. It ground down the coal into fines. We had to clean where it would leak out. Underneath and outside the ‘W-Pit’ [named for the ‘W’ conveyor belt] would hold lots of built up coal under the conveyor belts. We would pump in water from a fire hose to mix with the coal and then pump the mix out. You’d never get it all, just do the best you can.
We laborers were sent up to ‘The Whistle’ to make clearance under the belt from coal build up. I was one of two people that had a way to get it done. Later, a day before I left the coal handling department for the ore dock at the furnace plant, they sent me up there but the coal was so compacted I couldn’t get it cleared. I had been on lay off and nobody had cleaned up there. It got all fucked up while I was gone. I wasn’t going to bust my ass, so told them I worked on it, but couldn’t get it done.
But on the day of the blizzard, it was all very wet with the heavy snow fall. All that wet coal would get stuck in the hoppers and we had to beat them with sledgehammers and heavy bars. The coal would fall and spread out on the moving conveyor belt under the hoppers. The coal was constantly getting stuck. The coal was running very slow and after 16 hours of beating the hell out of the hoppers, we still hadn’t filled the charging bins (that would load the larry car) and we were asked to stay over for the another shift, or ‘a 16’, as we called it.
Two co-worker were assigned to watch these two small conveyor belts outside. The ‘S’ and ‘T’ belts connected the mixer and pulverizer. When one guy was inside warming up, the other was supposed to watch the belt, and they would rotate in/out. Around midnight, the one watching got cold and left the belt alone. The chute from one conveyor to the next got plugged and both conveyors got buried under 10 feet of coal. The foreman told us to grab our shovels and come with him. About six of us dug the belts out with snow whirling around us. We finished finally at 3am. They told us to rest on the benches in our locker room. The bench was only about 8 inches wide and connected to the lockers. But I still knocked out.
The six of us laborers who were on 32’s were assigned to watch those outdoor belts in the morning. We took turns. When it was my turn, I got out there and the Salamander (portable heater) went out on me. I did relight it, but it blew up – right in my face. Lost my eyebrows for about a month. Face was red. Finally at 4pm the next day, I was able to go home. I never did I get caught at work during the blizzards that followed.