Leaving Home to Find Work-

When my dad, grandfather, and uncle worked far away from home. 

My dad, grandfather, and uncle were carpenters.  In the early 1970s, they were sent by their union to work on New York State’s remaking of the State Capitol.  Photo: Newvine Family Collection

If you’ve ever been in a situation where you or someone in your family had to work a great distance from home, you know it can be difficult.

There’s the loss of daily connection with family, missing out on school events, and a general worry as to when it all may end.

At least that was the case when my dad, grandfather, and uncle worked on Empire State Plaza, a massive public works project in the state capitol of Albany some fifty years ago.

Former NY Governor Nelson Rockefeller who conceived the Empire State Plaza project in the 1960s.  The project was completed in the mid-1970s. Photo: empirestateplaza.ny.gov  

Then-Governor Nelson Rockefeller set out to remake the offices for state government with a plan to build four buildings, an underground parking and retail center, and a reflecting pool much like the one in Washington, DC.  

As with many construction projects, actual costs were under forecast and construction forecasts were grossly underestimated.  

An accelerated construction schedule led area trade unions to seek members well beyond the Albany boundaries.  One hundred miles north of Albany in Rome, New York, the Carpenters local number 277 offered jobs to their union members on the state office complex project.  

The Newvine carpenters were members of that union, and they got the call.

With local construction projects at a near standstill, the only prospect for some union members was to take the offer to work on Empire State Plaza.  

The three Newvine men, plus one non-family carpenter, would leave for Albany on a Monday morning, and return home on Friday every week.  They put in a solid week on the job during the day while living the bachelor life at night in a small mobile home in a trailer park just outside the city.  

That so-called bachelor life included making their own nightly dinner, keeping the mobile home clean, and venturing out to a telephone booth (these were, after all, pre-cell phone days) once a week to call home to see how their families were doing.

As a kid growing up in the sixties and seventies, I remember the Albany months whimsically.  Mom would make Dad’s lunch in is aluminum lunch pail for Monday, but for the rest of the week, he was on his own.

I would begin missing my dad on about Tuesday or Wednesday of each week.  I remember how excited my brother, sister, and I were on Fridays when he came bouncing in from that exhausting week away from his family.  

A post card image of a completed Empire State Plaza.

We never made more out of it than what it was to us in that moment of our lives. 

Dad had to work out of town because that’s where the job was. 

He was blessed to have his father and his brother fall into the same situation.  All three men did what they had to do to support their families.

That’s the way it was in 1970 and to some extent, that’s the way it has been ever since. 

Whether it was my brother retraining for a new job after the closing of his long time employer’s factory, my sister going all-in on a plan to support her kids in their career choices, or my own willingness to pack up and move a few times during my working career, the Newvines, like so many other families, were willing to do what it takes to make life better for our families.   

We got that spirit from our parents, our parents got that same dedication from their parents.  

Hopefully, our generation is passing on that same commitment to our children and grandchildren.

Steve Newvine lives in Merced. 

He will soon publish a fictionalized version of this story that will include an account of former Governor Rockefeller’s leadership style in the 1950s and 60s. 

His current book Can Do Californians, is available at BarnesAndNoble.com and at Lulu.com