美国国家公共电台 NPR A High School Reunion Reveals: When Steel Mills Fell Silent, Fates Got Flipped

 

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

There is a big divide between older Americans who are ready for retirement¹ and those who don't quite have the money. Our colleague Marilyn Geewax retired² from her post as an NPR business editor, and then she attended her 45th high school reunion in the Youngstown, Ohio, area. It's a region where many old-style, middle-class jobs have disappeared, and that is now reflected in the lives of many retirees. Here's what Marilyn found at the reunion.

MARILYN GEEWAX, BYLINE³: The 1973 class of Memorial High School met at a nice restaurant in one of Youngstown's suburbs seven miles from the hard luck area where our high school stands. The classmates who showed up were, by and large, those who had gone to college and could afford the dinner - $45 a person, $90 a couple, plush your drinks.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Wait. There's Mary. Oh, my God. Good to see you.

GEEWAX: I caught up with friends, especially the ones who, like me, had moved away for degrees and jobs. I've lived in Ohio, New York, Georgia, Massachusetts, Washington, D.C., and now back to Georgia. My classmate, Pete Nicolaou, he was different. He stayed close to home, but he wasn't going to the class reunion, so I stopped by his house to see how he was adjusting to retirement. It's just a few miles from our high school in a rural area. He has woods in the backyard and a fish-stocked pond in the front.

PETE NICOLAOU: We cleared all the land that you see cleared. (Laughter) To do it now - I wouldn't be able to do it.

GEEWAX: He loves living in the country.

NICOLAOU: We got coyotes. We got bears.

GEEWAX: We went inside the house. The living room walls are decorated with mounted deer heads. We sat at the kitchen table and flipped⁴ through our old yearbook. In high school, I was a nerd focused on getting into Ohio State. Pete was a bit of a smart aleck but in a cool way.

NICOLAOU: Everybody's worried about me cussing and everything else. I thought I...

GEEWAX: You are, Pete...

NICOLAOU: I could have a civil tongue - yeah, me.

GEEWAX: ...Quite capable (laughter) of a civilized⁵ conversation.

Our high school sat on a hilltop. Behind it, the Earth sloped away down to the valley where the Youngstown Sheet and Tube mill stretched out for miles. Our school, our town, the air we breathe, they were inseparable from those blast furnaces.

NICOLAOU: When there was smoke coming out of that valley, people were being fed, and kids were being sent to school.

GEEWAX: At the time, I was the one moving in a riskier⁶ direction by trying to be a writer, a hit-or-miss job that may not provide a pension. Pete made what seemed like the more secure choice.

NICOLAOU: Go to the steel mills. That's my - that was my vision, to go work and follow my father.

(SOUNDBITE OF STEEL MILL MACHINERY)

GEEWAX: That's the sound of the Sheet and Tube mill captured in an old government documentary film. It's exactly the kind of noise that greeted Pete when he started working there that summer of 1973.

NICOLAOU: Didn't know what I was walking into - I've never been in the - where there was cranes going overhead and flames and heat.

GEEWAX: The job was dangerous but weirdly⁷ satisfying.

NICOLAOU: In the steel mill, I was ready to retire there. I was set. You felt good. You come out dirty (laughter) but, I mean, you did a good day's work, and you felt good about it.

GEEWAX: Then came what everyone here calls Black Monday, September 19, 1977. That was the day the Youngstown Sheet and Tube announced it was shutting down. Five thousand people lost their job on that day, including Pete.

NICOLAOU: They walked in and told us you're done. They didn't give us no two-week notice. No - you didn't see nothing about it. They just come and told us goodbye.

GEEWAX: And here's where our life stories really start to diverge⁸. I heard the news on the radio. I was in my black Plymouth Duster driving back to Ohio State after finishing up an internship⁹ at the Dayton newspaper. I called the Dayton editor and asked if I should go cover the steel mill shut down. He said, yes. I got a front-page story and a $50 check for it. I made money on my hometown's calamity¹⁰. I'd go on to become a business news journalist. These days, I'm still editing and teaching part time. White-collar retirees can pad savings¹¹ by doing sit-down jobs. As for Pete, after Black Monday, he worked in a van plant until that shut down, too, then an auto¹² plant until he had to retire at 56 because of health problems.

NICOLAOU: I got a staph infection after one of my surgeries, and that's what ended me, and it ate my heart - ate the valve off my heart. And they had to take my knee back out again.

GEEWAX: Pete walks with a cane¹³. He's also survived a cancer. He says his doctors tell him it's likely linked to asbestos in the mill. His wife works cleaning houses to help pay the bills. Still, Pete and his wife live a peaceful life. He's glad he stayed.

NICOLAOU: And I hunted and fished all I wanted around here. I did what I wanted to do, and I had a wife that supported me, and she understood it.

GEEWAX: So Pete is content, but here's what bothers me - seeing so many older Americans who worked hard like Pete facing mounting medical bills. Lawmakers are talking about raising the Social Security retirement age by two or three years. That could hit people like Pete, people who worked so hard their bodies won't let them continue earning into their late '50s.

It's funny how many of us knew people, relatives, that had a missing finger or missing - I had a - my father's cousin was missing his leg. A couple of guys from our church died in the mill. I mean, it was a tough life. It was...

NICOLAOU: But it was a good life that we'll never see again.

GEEWAX: Pete doesn't want anyone feeling sorry for him, and I respect that. As for me, when the reunion ended, I flew away, like always.

INSKEEP: Former NPR business editor Marilyn Geewax.

1 retirement   

n.退休，退职

参考例句：

• She wanted to enjoy her retirement without being beset by financial worries.她想享受退休生活而不必为金钱担忧。
• I have to put everything away for my retirement.我必须把一切都积蓄起来以便退休后用。

2 retired   

adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的

参考例句：

• The old man retired to the country for rest.这位老人下乡休息去了。
• Many retired people take up gardening as a hobby.许多退休的人都以从事园艺为嗜好。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 flipped   

轻弹( flip的过去式和过去分词 )； 按（开关）； 快速翻转； 急挥

参考例句：

• The plane flipped and crashed. 飞机猛地翻转，撞毁了。
• The carter flipped at the horse with his whip. 赶大车的人扬鞭朝着马轻轻地抽打。

5 civilized   

a.有教养的，文雅的

参考例句：

• Racism is abhorrent to a civilized society. 文明社会憎恶种族主义。
• rising crime in our so-called civilized societies 在我们所谓文明社会中日益增多的犯罪行为

6 riskier   

冒险的，危险的( risky的比较级 )

参考例句：

• Now they are starting to demand higher returns on riskier assets. 而今他们开始在风险更高的资产上要求更高的回报。
• The problem with that: RIM's business is getting riskier every quarter. 不过问题也随之而来：RIM面临的业务风险正逐季增大。

7 weirdly   

古怪地

参考例句：

• Another special characteristic of Kweilin is its weirdly-shaped mountain grottoes. 桂林的另一特点是其形态怪异的岩洞。
• The country was weirdly transformed. 地势古怪地变了样。

8 diverge   

v.分叉，分歧，离题，使...岔开，使转向

参考例句：

• This is where our opinions diverge from each other.这就是我们意见产生分歧之处。
• Don't diverge in your speech.发言不要离题。

9 internship   

n.实习医师，实习医师期

参考例句：

• an internship at a television station 在电视台的实习期
• a summer internship with a small stipend 薪水微薄的暑期实习

10 calamity   

n.灾害，祸患，不幸事件

参考例句：

• Even a greater natural calamity cannot daunt us. 再大的自然灾害也压不垮我们。
• The attack on Pearl Harbor was a crushing calamity.偷袭珍珠港(对美军来说)是一场毁灭性的灾难。

11 savings   

n.存款，储蓄

参考例句：

• I can't afford the vacation,for it would eat up my savings.我度不起假，那样会把我的积蓄用光的。
• By this time he had used up all his savings.到这时，他的存款已全部用完。

12 auto   

n.(=automobile)(口语)汽车

参考例句：

• Don't park your auto here.别把你的汽车停在这儿。
• The auto industry has brought many people to Detroit.汽车工业把许多人吸引到了底特律。

13 cane   

n.手杖，细长的茎，藤条；v.以杖击，以藤编制的

参考例句：

• This sugar cane is quite a sweet and juicy.这甘蔗既甜又多汁。
• English schoolmasters used to cane the boys as a punishment.英国小学老师过去常用教鞭打男学生作为惩罚。