I kept waiting to hear the phones ring. A last minute call of reprieve, a pardon, somebody saying it was all a bad dream. But it never came, and at 7:01 this morning Machine Tender David Heron signaled the backtender he was about to blow the sheet down for the last time. We all looked on. There was nothing we could do to stop it.
A little piece of history torn off to treasure.
What we did.
David washes her down one last time, while the reel drum is stopped for eternity.
I saw the #33 Machine for the first time in 1982,when I was a 18 year old construction worker working for the Brown and Root constuction company, building the #34 machine, (which would sit right beside her), I poked my head through a hole in the wall one day and saw her sitting there, just a rolling away, making paper; that's what she did.
The #33 Machine started up in 1975, and ran wide open until November 19th 2013.
38 years, she did what she was designed to do.
Today, I watched and photographed it's final shutdown.
I'm not gonna lie, it made me cry.
6 years of my 30 year career at the mill, I spent working in the 33 complex.
I saw three friends and co-workers lose thier lives on the floors of this machine.
I don't understand it. I never will.
She was a beauty. Rest in Peace #33 Machine.
And may God bless every soul she touched.
Greg
