not so broke

I had this car (47 Austin) for a few months around January 1956...things were pretty skinny that miserable winter. 55-56 was a bit of a record breaker for a period of long cold weather...I remember it started cold on November the 11th 55 and it was unseasonable freezing, east wind and snow through until March....I remember that as a bummer, depressing few months... which is unusual because for the most part it was a fun time to be a kid.....there was very little work available and I sold that little car to my friend because I just could not handle the cost of having it...A huge gas pipeline project went through B.C. at that time and it started in big time in our area April 56.....Everything changed with the good paying jobs it provided and if you were fortunate enough to be hired it was a new world......It did not take long and I had much better set of wheels ....my 47 plymouth...that was one nice car. Life was good...I could pay my folks board and was not so damn broke all the time....We worked every day so the fun had to be crammed in on the weekends ...its good to be young and survive the body abuse a 18 year old heaps upon himself....there was a lot of sorry looking faces on the work bus at 6 oclock Sunday mornings ....the best to hope for was a hold up or problem on the line so one could grab a truck seat or soft spot and get a little shut eye.....when there was shut down to wait for blasting ditch or whatever they had no problem with guys goofing off...but be prepared to highball when the crew was moving or hit the road....they called that running you off.....I seen a few machine operators and welders run off for being undependable...or dumb mistakes...