As the City Sleeps

it's kind of early for a load of artichokes to be getting in those guys must have made good time coming in from the valley looks like the markets gonna be busy tonight I'm glad I decided to walk to work tonight it's a good night for it that fresh air feels good San Francisco always looks swell from up here there's a million people asleep down there now they probably wouldn't like to work at night they probably don't know about guys like me who are awakened just going to work city's sure growing I can remember when a lot of those houses weren't there I guess it's because San Francisco is such a big seaport one of the biggest in the United States based on the West Coast anyway there's new businesses and factories moving in all the time and ships moving out all the time to places like Manila or Singapore or maybe Australia funny thing I've lived all my life right here between the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay and I've never been to sea yeah it's a fine night all right but I'd better get to work a wholesale produce market it's not too busy yet the trucks are just beginning to roll in the whole markets only about four or five city blocks square to see it at this time of night you'd hardly know what a big job goes on down here to get fresh food into the city and people just take it for granted they never stop to think how their food gets there takes a lot of food to feed a million people thousands of tonnes of fruit and vegetables every day most of it comes in here the night before and all of it gets handled by a few hundred people people like lumpers to unload it off the trucks Porter's to move it off the curb people to buy it and people to sell it it takes a lot of teamwork to run the market each wholesale house has a floor manager like Charlie here to keep track of the shipments and to tell us what he wants done next me I'm a lumper alum purrs a guy who unloads the produce off the trucks during the night I work different places depending on where the trucks have to be unloaded but I usually start out at the house where my friend al the porter works say hello find out what's new of course no matter how early you come in there's always some trucker in early to beat the rush I ain't got all night Oh keep your shirt on Al and I have worked together for years he likes his job and I like mine nobody's watching over us to see how we do our job we know what has to be done and we do it it takes more than muscle to move produce all night you've got to know how the old-timers know the best ways to lift and handle crates of food how to work together sometimes a load comes in that has to be moved into the house right away when that happens the porters have to keep moving and they beef when they have to wait for a stack of crates so it's fun once in a while to get together with the trucker and stack up the crates so fast that the porter gets so busy moving the stuff in he doesn't realize that half the markets laughing at him looks like this is Al's night for it Carola hell NIC's coffee shop is a kind of club for the guys who work in the market almost everybody stops in here sometime during the night it's a good place for a quick game of checkers and the guys who play can count on plenty of free advice of course the main reason for going to NICs is the coffee it comes strong and hot everybody likes to relax and talk a little mix in a good spot to pick up all the market gossip he's always ready to help settle an argument there's no special time set up for us to break off work for coffee guy has to grab a quick cup whenever he can after lumping produce for a while it's good just to sit down for a minute or two take the load off your feet usually I find myself thinking about the family maybe how we spend the weekend it's only a couple of weeks now until the fishing season opens up man I can hardly wait to go up to the mountains and hook into a few trout I think I'll take my boy along this year he's old enough he'd get a big kick out of it by the time Al and I get back from coffee Charlie's got plenty of work lined up for us the markets really getting busy right at this one house several trucks are waiting to be unloaded all over the market in wholesale houses like this one truck after truck comes rolling in strawberries tomatoes asparagus grapefruit carrots melons crate after crate all night long as fast as the lumpers can get the food unloaded each shipment has to be sorted out by the porter it has to be weighed and graded so the right price can be put on it the floor men are experts at figuring the price of a shipment just by looking at a few samples it takes an expert to set a price high enough to make a profit and still low enough to meet the competition so the food will sell fast it's daylight by the time the last truck is unloaded and a lumper knows by then he's done a good night's work 60,000 pounds a night five nights a week that's my average and I don't mind saying I'm proud of it now the market is jam-packed with fresh fruits and vegetables and even before the day has really begun the retail dealers are in to take it to the neighborhood markets and stores about the time I'm finished with my job the rest of the people in San Francisco are just starting on the way to their jobs sometimes on the way home I feel like I've been feeding the whole city single-handed I like to walk through the morning crowds they don't know me but I feel like I've been doing something important for them and I guess some of the other guys feel the same way hey Albert walking home from work is alright but after a night in the market I could use a lift home I'm kind of glad Charlie came along he goes out my way Charlie's a trout fishermen - I remember once in the days we used to take the streetcar together we got talking trout fishing so hard I forgot to get off at my stop the guys who work right in the wholesale market get to like fresh fruit and vegetables Charlie had some of the first melons of the season picked out nice of him to give me one nothing tastes better for breakfast and a good melon Charlie's a good guy always doing something like that yes sir there's nothing like getting home from a good night's work coming up your own Street looking forward to a good hot meal and a hot bath a chance to relax and talk to the wife and especially no more stuff to lift did I say no more stuff to lift yes sir 60,000 pounds a night you

Channel: US National Archives

Views: 41,624

Rating: 4.8864627 out of 5

Keywords: US National Archives, NARA

Id: hHWysKWphKY

Length: 18min 46sec (1126 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 02 2016