Croy Transcription

Interview of Mike Croy. Conducted by Kimberly Haysom and Heather JohnsonKH:Today is May 18, 2009 and my name is Kimberly Haysom and this is Mr.Michael Croy. Correct?MC:That is correct.KH: And this is Heather Johnson. Um…could you state your full name, date of birth and current city of residence please.MC:Okay. Michael Edward Croy, January 17, 1948 and currently reside andhave for 19 years in Grand Terrace, California.KH:Um…before we started the interview did you read the consent form andDo you agree with us tape recording and recording the interview?MC:Yes I do and I have no problem with you. With this interview.KH:Thank you. Can you tell me how you started to work for Santa Fe?MC:Well I guess it goes back to when I was a toddler. I loved trains as a little boy and I just had this premonition that this was gonna happen. I wasgonna go to work for the railroad. So as a senior in high school um… inthe city of Chicago with the graduating class of every high school comingup in mid June I figured I’d try to get a jump on the gun and see what business offers and what job opportunities were out there and I had beenfilling out applications from factories and plants and stores all day long Idecided to swing by the Santa Fe Railroad. Which is pretty obscure to gettoo. You have to take a private road to get into the railroad yard and Iwalked up to the tower and I saw a man with a suit on and I and he askedme what I was up there for and I said I would like to apply for a job and hesaid what as and I didn’t know what to respond to him and so the firstthing that came to my mind was switch man. So he says go down to thegirl in the office down stairs. So I went down there and she gave me anapplication uh… and it was about 30 minutes later she comes back and shesays, “well here’s your physical papers now you go see this doctor and yougo see an eye doctor and you go see this other doctor and then uh bringthem back here and then you take 2 student trips and take a trip with theswitch crew to learn the hand signals and everything. One on day shift,one on afternoon shift, and one on night shift and then you’re hired as afull fledged employee.”KH:How long did that take from the application process to being hired?MC:Uh…I just basically was hired on the spot.

KH:Really.MC:Right after I went through the requirements of the physical and everythinguh.. and did the student trips then I was actually hired as a full time paidemployee and my seniority date was my first working day on the railroadwas June 3

rd

of 1966 and I had to take the day off to attend my graduationon June 6

th

of 1966.KH:Really (laughter)MC:And I had just started this wonderful job working on that I grew up trainsmy whole life and I model trains now (inaudible) now that (inaudible) so Iwas, I was happy.KH:That’s Kind of funny. How long did you work for Santa Fe?MC:37 years but that includes four years military which counted as time withthe railroad.KH:(Inaudible) a little bit. When did you go to the Vietnam War? I don’tremember.MC:I went into the Marine Corps in December of 1967 and was honorablydischarged in December of 1971.KH:And then you got to come back with your seniority at Santa Fe.MC:All my seniority and vacation rights and (Inaudible)KH:Really?MC:Well that’s the lawKH:It is?MC:YahKH:Well I didn’t know that. You’re teaching me something.MC:I mean if you leave you…you the veterans just because you are a veteranthey have to give you your job back.KH:Oh I didn’t know that. Okay what was the work environment like umwhen you were at Santa Fe? Lets say the beginning what was it like?Were you (inaudible) managers?

MC:Uh…yeah I’ll tell you it was a lot more fun to work for the railroad inthose days and um I can remember some good times and I can remember some bad times. The good times were for me were to be honest with youwere (inaudible) times any way and when you live in a city that is therailroad capital of the word there was 29 different railroads in the city andwe would go out we might take cars over to one railroad in one part of thecity one day and then cars over in some other city the next day another part of the city the next day. And working on a switch crew there werelike 46 different switch engines working around the clock. So you wereevery job was different and so you never did the same thing twice and soeverything was kept up new and exciting and enjoyable. But some of thesad parts I remember or the bad parts I remember was the old timers they(Inaudible) the young guys on the railroad. They didn’t want us there andit came to a matter of money cuz if they didn’t have any guys on the if they didn’t’ have all the guys on the extra board then they would have tostart calling the regulars guys on the day job they would have to work over time to make up the slack. So I can remember a lot of times engineers andswitchmen and conductors saying why do you want to be on the railroadthere’s no future here. What do you want to be here for you know.(inaudible) It was there own selfishness because if I wasn’t there or theother 8 or 9 guys that were hired that year with me weren’t there thatwould mean they would get their days off they would work their days off so I gotta back track a little bit. When I started working on the railroad youcould work 16 hours. That was the deal. You could work 16 be off 8,work 16 be off 8, work 16 be off. There was more work then you could possibly do. So in I believe the maybe in the early 70’s they cut it from 16to 14 hours and then eventually they cut it from 14 to the 12 which it isnow. But that was uh 16 hours a day was nothing. You know. You work 16 be off go home. That wasn’t 8 hours of sleep your just off 8 hours in oneshift for the night and then you’d come back.KH:Really.MC:And of course the first 8 hours was (inaudible) time and the second yougot time and a half soKH:Well that’s goodMC:So these guys were making a lot of money and they didn’t want the youngguys coming in there and taking there money out of the pot. So they triedto drive you off the railroad.KH:Were did you start working? In what city?MC:Chicago, Illinois

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