john heck of maidencreek township grew up on a farm in lower heidelberg township and helped to manage the land and the animals with his parents before he eventually found his way into a career of molding with metal. below is an excerpt from his poem in this project.
he enjoys singing these boots are made for walkin' when he sees someone reminding him of nancy sinatra, according to certain cowgirl-like footwear. he's fun like that.
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a molder for 30 years, then a pourer for 11 more—i can
say i kept close to metal except on weekends, for most
of my life. at textile machine works in wyomissing, later
rockwell international, we wore leggings from our calves
down over our shoes so it would hurt less if the metal
splashed toward the ground and touched our skin. heavy
glasses with shields on the sides protected our eyes.
you got burned now and then. when sunlight shined
through the windows, you could see dust in the air.
we were known best for making the cast-iron knitting
machines which eventually sewed length into women’s
stockings. we heated that metal to 2,800 degrees,
leather gloves with cuffs covering our hands so we
wouldn’t get the metal in our sleeves. one fellow, he
spilled hot cast-iron into his shoe. we didn’t see him
again at the foundry until three months after that. they
kept extra shirts around for when metal speckled flecks
onto your chest. you ripped it off and grabbed another
to wear. when seamless hosiery hit the market, it cost
the company millions to buy and install new equipment
for the changed design of machines. it took a year to do.
in the cafeteria, we sometimes ate steak and potatoes,
a heap of string beans. it felt nice to get away from all
of that heat, all of that hot metal, for even a half-hour.
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