Albert "Bruce" Washington - On teaching the trade (clip)
Interviewed by Yvonne Cleveland and Priya Sreenivasan on March 11, 2023
Yvonne Cleveland: What is one thing you would want to share with people today who might be interested in this kind of work? Another question is: do you think this kind of work is still in existence?
Albert Washington: Well, it is now, but when I first started, it was all Black [people] doing it because it was hard work, and then when the white [people] found how much money was in it they kind of took it over. I remember when I started, I went to rent scaffolds and I had to get the man who worked for me to rent them for me because they wouldn’t rent them to me because I was black, and he would have to go rent them for me. So, after a few years, we bought everything we needed: scaffold, tractors and lifts, and everything [else]. Then people that knew us knew we were going to do a good job, and that’s how we went on like that.
Yvonne Cleveland: Good reputation.
Albert Washington: Never advertised or nothing. Just word of mouth and people that knew it. We worked every day, and we wanted to work.
Yvonne Cleveland: Wow!
Albert Washington: So that was a blessing.
Yvonne Cleveland: That was a blessing, I was just going to say it was a blessing for you to be able to have that much work. Didn’t have to advertise, just word of mouth, but that goes to show how good you were at your job.
Albert Washington: And David Rankin used to tell us whatever you do, teach somebody else, so that’s what we tried to do.
Yvonne Cleveland: Pass it on
Albert Washington: Yeah.
Priya Sreenivasan: How do you teach someone?
Albert Washington: Well, the thing with it is, everybody that I taught we paid them. Taught them the trade and paid them to learn.
Yvonne Cleveland: That doesn’t happen too often, you get paid to learn.
Albert Washington: That’s right, but we started them out, taught them and stuff. ‘Cause I took it in school, but we taught all those guys, my nephew, and my son, out on the job and paid them too.
Yvonne Cleveland: Did you ever have someone that you were trying to teach, and you said to yourself, he just ain’t going to get it.
Albert Washington: Yeah, some were like that.
