b'What happened to you on that day?I was on my way to work [when the bridges went up]. I worked at Hunts Point Bridge. I was on the Long Island Expresswayand they were saying there was a tie-up because some trucks were blocking the Long Island Expressway in Queens.As soon as I heard that, I said, Thats it! Because my brother never told me, he wanted to keep me out of it.They met with some resistance, I remember, on the Flushing Bridgethe guy didnt want to pick up the bridge. They had guys like my brother around in case the operator on the bridge didnt want to do it. My brother knew how tooperate most of the bridges because he had been around most of them. So, you were on your way to work when the job action started. What did you do?I knew how to get to work, and when I got there the traffic was backed up. Then I got away from the bridge fast, becausethese people were, to say the least, angry-they were violent.[Sally: We didnt say what Rudy did for a living for the longest time, because people were very, very hostile.]What happened to your brother?Well, Jack Marer was his supervisor, and he was a pretty good guy. Jack said, Listen, Pete, no questions asked, we need the control handleafter the strike was over, you know.And what happened? The control handle just miraculously reappeared?Yeah.Do you have any articles?I have a few. I have an article about the time I rescued some kids.It was in January 58. I was on the Noels Avenue Bridge in Haughtry Basin near the Cross Bay bit Bridge. The waterhad frozen on the bay, and there were about six kids walking across the ice. The ice broke, and they all fell into the water.Two or three of them got out on their own, but there was one kid, he was floundering, he was so frightened. I went to theshore, and they made their way fairly close, so I grabbed a life preserver and threw it in. I held one end of the rope, and I figured Id pull them in. But they couldnt get the idea in their head that I would pull them in. There was somebody elsewho tried to help. One of the kids had a boat, and he tried to help, and he fell in, too. I was trying to get to them with thelife preserver, but it kept ending up short, and I could see this kid was going to go down. When youre on ice, you shouldnever stand. You distribute your weight. But it was too late, because then I went into the water. I figured, hypothermiahere, you know. Then another guy came along with a ladder.30 '