CRAZY MONEY: Nine Months on the Trans-Alaska Pipeline

by Potter Wickware ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 29, 1979

The Alaska Pipeline is old news. We have already read about it from every conceivable angle--scandal, lifestyle, environment--and this latest entry does nothing but retrace familiar ground. Potter Wickware, who went from student days at Berkeley to a union job at Bethlehem Steel, decided to share in the excitement and money of the Pipeline. He grossed $50,000 during his nine months on the job, and he kept a diary--literally a blowtorch-by-blowtorch description of the intricacies of welding. ""A bellhole,"" Wickware explains typically, ""is a bell-shaped hole dug under a pipeline joint to permit access for welding."" In the midst of the nuts and bolts, he tries to depict the atmosphere of a Pipeline camp, but quoting snippets of obscenity-filled conversations doesn't do it. Some interesting points do emerge: it was common to have crews with twice the workers needed, getting princely salaries although half of them had nothing to do; camp marriages were frequent, but they usually ended when the jobs ended. Overall, a stale, lifeless account that only a welder could love.

Pub Date: March 29, 1979

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Random House

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1979

Categories: NONFICTION