b"Once you began working for the City, was there anyone on the job, a co-worker or a supervisor who encouraged you or helped you in your job? Well, they showed me the first time I had to set up and everything. After that, I was on my own.Did you keep the same title throughout your work or did you get a promotion at some point?I went to plastering school for three years. After the school was over, they put me in a project as a plasterer. I was aplasterer for about a year, even less than that. Then I went back to being a helper. It didn't work out for me as a plasterer.You had to have a feeling for it and I didn't havefeeling for it.What did the training you received involve?They taught us how to plaster how to put cement on the walls and how to put the base on the walls, on the tire wireand how to white-coat and everything else like that. I went up in the Bronx, that's where they had the classes. I punchedmy card and went to work, but I really went to school. You were being paid for this training?Yes. It was paid training for three years. But I went back to being a plasterer's assistant. It didn't work out.Were you ever a shop steward or a grievance representative?I didn't want to do that. I was just a happy-go-lucky person, I was cracking jokes and having fun. Did you attend union meetings? Rallies? Events?Yeah, yeah.Tell me about a typical day or week on the job. The night before, we set the wagon up with the lime, the plaster, sheetrock. Back when I started, we used drop clothsto put on the floor, so you didn't mess up the peoples floor. We used to cut up the paper bags and put them down. I don'tknow what they do now, its been five or ten years. We would come to work, go to the shop and get the wagon. Then wego to the tenant's apartment, we lay all the stuff out and set up. The plasterer would knock down the wall and then I would clean it up. While I'm taking the garbage, he'll plaster. He'll make a gaugethat's when you take the cement, youmake a little round thing, you put water, you put the lime and then you mix it all together. That's what you put on thewall. Or, he might put a piece of wire last and make some Structo Lite [brand of basecoat plaster]. That's cement that youuse inside the wall. It's three coats. You got to put another coat on top and let it dry. Then the next day you come back andput another coat of cement. The next day, you come back and you white-coat it with plaster and lime and you finish it.You were doing this inside tenants' apartments rather than outside?Interior, yes, mostly in their apartments. Sometimes we might have to work in the community center or in the seniorcitizens center. It was mostly repairs. We set everything up in the plaster shop. We got the lime, the plaster, the wire layer,the steel rods that you put in, you got all your material in the plaster shop.161 "