My grandfather, Edward Andrews (born Hyacinth Slovinski, or so I've been told), worked his whole life for the Dixon Crucible Company. His 40 year pin is the ornament on the top of my little Christmas tree. He made it to foreman on the line at the pencil factory. I never had a sense of the details of his job, but I remember that once he flew to Mexico to share his knowledge with them. I was able to be there by his side at all of his other jobs: monitoring the action and locking up playgrounds and gyms for Jersey City Parks & Recreation, being a deacon at St. Paul's Church, being a Cubmaster, working at the polls.
I thought about him a lot watching 24 City. I wished I could ask him now what his job was like. Back when he was alive I wasn't interested. By the time I got blue collar consciousness, my stepfather, Harry Meier, was in my life, but he wasn't talking. I remember getting some Studs Terkel from the library but dealing with Harry ended with me crying and throwing the book out the car window in anger.
24 City is a dramatized oral history of a Chinese factory which is turned into an upscale apartment complex. The Movie Gods were clearly speaking to me, as I went home to google the Dixon Company history and saw what is currently at Poppy's workplace.
Rating: 5 out of 10
Recommended instead: Learning the history of work in your family
