History: Roofing & Sheetmetal Industry; Shreveport, Caddo Par., Louisiana Submitter: Frank M. Smart Date: Oct. 2001 ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** A LOOK BACK AT THE ROOFING AND SHEETMETAL INDUSTRY IN SHREVEPORT The men who worked in the roofing and sheetmetal business in Shreveport were a talented, highly-skilled, oft-times eccentric and very colorful bunch. Many of these men were well-known to me as a young man growing up in Cedar Grove in the 40's, 50's and 60's. My father, Frank Madison Smart, Sr., was one of those men, one of their leaders and one of the most liked and admired men in the business. Daddy’s brothers, James Ralph Smart and Louis Arsene (L.A.) Smart also worked in these building trades. (See sidebar, “The Smart Brothers.”) I would like to tell you a bit about that industry and those men, so far as my memory will allow me to. Daddy went to work for the Shreveport Blow Pipe Company in 1922 at the age of 18. The company’s primary business was concerned with cotton gins. This entailed intricate metal piping which required a high degree of skill in taking a flat piece of 22-gauge tin and turning it into a pipe which might start out as a three-inch round and transition into a six-foot square piece. My father learned this art, which relies heavily on mathematical formulas, despite having only gotten to the third grade in school. He worked for the company, which went through several incarnations, until 1966, forty-four years, through good times and bad. The Shreveport Blow Pipe Company eventually became H.H. Bain Roofing and Sheetmetal Company and later Alco, for Allen Construction Company. Illness, age and a change of focus for the company, plus some unfeeling, uncaring new owners, forced Daddy into semi-retirement. But, in the forty-four years, Frank Smart forged a career few could match. His skills, his ability to get men to work together, and his total dedication to Bain Roofing and Sheetmetal Company has long been a source of pride for me as well as a source for pain. Daddy learned at the hands of the masters of the trade and he went on to teach many a young man his skills and pass along his vast knowledge and was instrumental in assisting many with life-long careers. He worked first for Hollace Hartsfield Bain, Sr., then Hollace, Jr., and finally Bill Allen who bought the company from the Bains. Bill Allen also bought a company that poured light-weight Zonolite and Gypsum roof decks. As a young boy who loved to go places with his father, the shop, which was on Milan Avenue in downtown Shreveport for many years before moving out to Southern Avenue, was a plethora of wonderful things, sights and smells. The tools were fascinating, the materials exotic and the men, large, rough and exciting to be around. Like men in most construction trades, at least back then, they were a rough and tumble Page 2 group of hard workers and hard drinkers and outdoorsmen. White men were the sheetmetal workers and shingle roofers and black men were the built-up roofers, in large part, working for white supervisors. It was hard, back-breaking work under extreme weather conditions and the pay was not that great. And of course every Friday was payday and there were always those around waiting for the workman to get off work and get his paycheck. Just across the street from Bain’s, on Milam Street was Harry’s Bar and Liquor Store and Harry’s Bail Bonds. Harry was quite the entrepreneur. He would cash to guys checks, take out what he ‘said’ they owed him, buy them their first drink and the party was on. Harry was not above fomenting a good fight among the guys, then calling the cops to have them arrested for fighting and being drunk in public, and then going to the jail to bail them out. Harry had them coming and going. Yet, those who plied these trades seem wholly dedicated to them, determined to grit it out, despite all the hardships they faced, and took great pride in their work. I vividly remember Bill Gresham, an eccentric guy, seldom sober, but still able to work his trade. When Bill would be working at a house where there were fruit trees, he would always return to the shop with his tools stuck in his pockets, his belt or his coat, and his tool box would be full of fruit. One-eyed Forrest Gann was another sheetmetal worker who imbibed frequently and who had actually been drafted, despite having only one eye, into the Army near the end of World War II. Daddy put me to working with Forrest numerous times thinking he would stay straight working for the bosses son. Daddy was the General Shop Foreman for the Bains. One day Forrest and I were working on Woodlawn High School. We were putting some extruded aluminum trim on a small stoop. Forrest got down off the ladder to get a better look and kept backing away while I held the metal in place. Finally he said, “OK Frankie, nail it down.” When I looked up Forrest was gone, headed for his car, which he always took out to the job. By the time I got down and ran around the building to the parking lot, Forrest was on his way back, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. No telling how much cheap wine he had slugged down before I got there. One of the true artisans of the trade was Odessa Bates Tolar. This man, and I worked along side him at the bench many hours, could take a flat piece of sheet copper and turn it into a beautiful, graceful cupola. Each piece hand-cut, hand-formed on crude shaping equipment, and hand-soldered. From the ground you could not tell it was not a machine-manufactured piece. O.B.,as he was called was good, but he was slow and he had to be kept on work like that or you couldn’t make any money off him. O.B.’s brother, Charlie, ran the State/Federal trade school for many years and was my teacher after I got my Sheetmetal Apprenticeship in mid-1961. (See sidebar about “The Year We All Got Well”). I also remember, fondly, T.A. McMillan, who stayed single until he was about 40 years old. T.A. and I worked together many times, me as a helper and later as an apprentice. I also remember some of the owners of major roofing and sheetmetal companies in Shreveport. Page 3 There were the Hollowell brothers, Bendy, Tonky and Donny, who owned Industrial Roofing and Sheetmetal and Wyatt Nichols of Nichols Roofing and Sheetmetal. I worked for both companies. It was at the Nichols shop that I got to work with Daddy’s great friend and fishing buddy, Cecil Streetman and Pete Kolb. I also worked with Frank Taylor, the younger Nichols boy and his brother-in-law, Buddy, and Mrs. Nichols. At Industrial I worked with Bendy Hollowell’s son-in-law, Denny Barber who was married to my grade school sweetheart, Mel Hollowell. Finally, in early 1964, 2 ˝ years into my apprenticeship, and with military service hanging over my head, I gave up my apprenticeship, which changed my Selective Service designation to 1-A, and waited to be drafted. And drafted I was, in September, 1964, into the US Army. After training I was sent to Germany where I married a German girl, Elfi Mailer. I re-enlisted in November, 1965, was trained as a Army Reporter-Photographer and in April, 1968, I was assigned to the famous First Cavalry Division (Airmobile) in the Republic of South Vietnam where I spent an exciting year. But, that’s another story for another time. (See sidebar, “My seven-year military odyessy, or How did Mrs. Smart’s only boy get in this mess?”) I often think of those guys I have talked about and many others. They were fun, exciting people for a young boy and man who had never traveled out of Louisiana and had never experienced life. They had many great qualities, many faults, they were just working stiffs trying to get by while working at trades that demanded much, and gave little in return. Just men, doing what men have to do.