Summer job in a steel mill: dirty, hot, with a side of rats
In the summer of 1977, with the help of a relative, Monessen native Mary Dodaro snagged a plum job with the labor gang at Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel in her hometown.
The work was dirty, noisy, hot and dangerous, but Ms. Dodaro, an 18-year-old who had just finished her freshman year at college, was ecstatic.
She was earning $6.36 an hour, while the minimum wage was $2.30.
“I felt like I was making all the money in the world,” said Ms. Dodaro, now a program manager at the Consortium for Public Education in McKeesport. “For a college student, that was incredible.”
Although the money was good — and she enjoyed the physical aspect of being a laborer’s assistant that included lifting big bags of dry cement — the job had its downsides.
“Everything was dirty,” she said. “I can remember showering at the end of a shift and by the time I got home, more dirt would have surfaced on my skin.” And then there were the rats. One creepy event she will never forget is watching a rat make off with a guy’s bagged lunch while in the sluice, an underground trough where metal pieces landed.
“I’m not making that up. I remember it very clearly,” she said.
Being a woman at the plant was an oddity, too. But Ms. Dodaro doesn’t remember it ever being an issue for her.
Despite the conditions, the pay was so intoxicating that she seriously considered quitting college for a career in the mill.
Luckily, she didn’t succumb to the temptation. Only a few months after she went back to school, layoffs began and didn’t
stop until the plant closed in 1986, ending some 80 years of production.
Ms. Dodaro, now 58, enjoyed a long career as a teacher, first with the Chicago Public Schools and, more recently, in her hometown of Monessen.
A few years ago, she joined the consortium, a nonprofit that works with school districts in Western Pennsylvania to better prepare students for viable post-secondary education and careers.
The biggest lesson she learned that summer long ago was “not to be seduced by money,” she said. “Instead, think of your longterm prospects and doing something you are proud of, and you love.”
She’s still glad she took the job at Wheeling-Pittsburgh because the experience enriched her skills as a teacher.
“I know all of my favorite teachers were those who had different experiences and shared them with us,” she said.
“I really don’t regret any job I’ve ever had.” SUMMER, FROM G-1
Patricia Sabatini: PSabatini@post-gazette.com; 412263-3066.