For Sparky and myself, curiosity drives passion which in turn fuels our life's engine. Our passion was capturing the story of both unbuilding the Grace (1929 - 2007) and Pearman (1966 - 2007) Bridges and discovering the unbuilders. It takes a lot of passion to track a project from July 2005 until April 2007 - rain, shine, hurricanes or moving to Singapore. We discovered the joy of discovery learning. Ken Canty opened the front door for us - then Steve Testa, Ponch Billingsley and Mickey Rogers opened many side doors. Below are the highlights of what we discovered, who we met and what we learned.
And a reminder from T.S. Eliot (East Coker from the Four Quartets)
Home is where one starts from. As we grow older The world becomes stranger, the pattern more complicated Of dead and living. Not the intense moment Isolated, with no before and after, But a lifetime burning in every moment And not the lifetime of one man only But of old stones that cannot be deciphered.
The worksite
The T-2 base
Preparing for debris containment - here a rubber tire blanket
Placing the blanket
A bit of encouragement - with Mickey keeping a careful watch
and a bit of CAT-like encouragement
Placing another blanket
Steel blankets for the top
With Manny doing the fetch and tote
Placing another blanket
Manny and the encourager
Placing it carefully
Under Manny's watchful eyes
Robbie and Mickey - Did anyone ever wonder if Mickey loves explosives?
Blankets in place
Now to position an empty container to constrain the lateral blast
Lifting it
and clearing beneath
More cleanup
and replacing the container barrier
Then back filling
more back fill
and in rolls Dyno Nobel - the Fed Ex of the explosive's world
The blast site
from a different perspective
With cousin Arthur watching
The Hollywood of the explosives world
A last look at the blast stie
And the transmitter with Shelly in the ready position (almost)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
C. Frank Starmer