1964-Working in a Foundry. These guys are handling the molten metal. They were called ‘Furnacemen’ and they were a different breed altogether. I’m pretty sure it was the heat that affected their brains. They couldn’t do anything about the clothes they wore every day. Full of holes and burns. The more they came in contact with the heat the crazier they got. The rest of the crew soon learned to give them ‘lots’ of space. When they weren’t pouring molten metal into molds they wandered around muttering and talking to themselves. They were well paid but didn’t last very long, perhaps two years and then they would quit.

I worked with a furnaceman at Bird Foundry. He told me he’d been working with heat for seven years! He was crazy.