Star-Gazette du lieu suivant : Elmira, New York • 28

I nnnn nrn' ijryy y-, jimm rf n-1 1. 1 l'T 1 I I1! yyT Tiryw ITfWW I. 'U 8C Star-Gazette, www.stargazette.com, Sunday, August 18, 2002 REGION Exhibit celebrates Mohawks' high-rise feats These men helped build World Trade Center, other large buildings in NYC. If in them to "boom out" to New York and longer stints away from home. Still up in the air Today the Mohawks in the New York metropolitan area share lodgings and drive home on weekends.

The trip north takes six hours on Interstate 87, three hours less than in the old days. Most drive back to New York in the wee hours of Monday, arriving at work just in time to punch in. Rice advised his two sons, 27 and 23, not to go into ironworking. One is a school teacher, the other an emergency medical squad member at the Kahnawake (pronounced ga-nuh-WAH-gay) reservation near Montreal. Rice now works as a steel fabricator on Stat-en Island, having quit high-rise work several years ago after heart bypass surgery.

Historians say ironworking is reminiscent of the tribal tradition of building long houses. High wages are another attraction. Unionized workers earn $36 an hour and the equivalent in benefits, said Kanatakta, 47, executive director of the Kahnawake Mohawk cultural center. "Paychecks average $1,500 to $2,000 a week," said Kanatakta (pronounced ga-nuh-D AK-ta), who uses one name. He said 600 to 800 of Kahnawake adult males are ironworkers, about a quarter of the community's work force.

Kanatakta, who comes from family of ironworkers, said aspiring Mohawks can attend ironworker training programs at the reservation. Most start out working with close relatives to foster confidence and skills. him, Rice learned to "walk iron" without the safety harnesses and nets that are now standard on high-rise jobs. He disputes the legend that Mohawks are unafraid of working high up. "I'm scared of heights," the stocky, plain-spoken Rice said in an interview.

"The way I was taught, you put one foot in front of the other, look straight ahead and never look down." Ironworkers operate in pairs in all kinds of weather at the windy heights above the city. Heavy beams and other structural materials are hoisted into place by towering cranes, then bolted together by the ironworkers. It's dangerous work requiring teamwork. "Your partner watches your back and you watch his back. You need that trust," Rice said.

Nets are strung on the exterior frame to catch falling objects, and every other floor is planked to stop falls. Mohawks got their start in ironworking in 1886 when the St. Lawrence River was bridged on tribal land in Quebec. Foremen noticed that Mohawks were surefooted on the span and trained some as helpers. They quickly gained a reputation for reliability and courage.

It was on the St. Lawrence in 1907 that 75 ironworkers, including 33 Mohawks, were killed when a bridge under construction at Quebec City collapsed because of a design flaw. As a result, Mohawk women insisted that their ironworker husbands and sons disperse to a wider array of jobs to lessen the chance of another mass disaster. This led ed Nations and Madison Square Garden. Work on Trade Center Mohawks are pictured in hard hats at the World Trade Center guiding steel beams into place and using rivets and bolts to assemble the frame.

Hundreds of them worked on that project from 1966 to 1974. A younger generation was toiling at building sites in Lower Manhattan when two hijacked airliners sliced into the Twin Towers on Sept. 11. In one photo, Herby Kirby faces the camera while, over his shoulder, smoke pours from the North Tower minutes after the first plane struck. Among Mohawks who built the towers, their destruction and the deaths of more than 2,800 people evoke sadness and bewilderment.

David Rice, 52, who got his start there as an ironworker apprentice in 1969, said he averted his gaze from the smoky void on the skyline after the attack. "I didn't even want to look," he said. "I still don't like to think about it." Rice has an arresting photo of himself standing atop the South Tower in September 1971 exactly 30 years before the disaster. He is balanced on a 10-inch girder at the 110th floor, empty space all around him. Rice's own snapshot of the last girder being hoisted on a cable up the face of the World Trade Center is in the exhibit.

The girder was signed by the Mohawks in an old ironworker tradition. Generations of workers Like his grandfather and father before By DAVID MINTHORN The Associated Press NEW YORK Mohawk ironworkers built Manhattan's skyline, spanned the Hudson and Verrazano Narrows and raised the World Trade Center Twin Towers. For more than 80 years, these paladins of high-rise have performed dizzying feats to give the city its mighty landmarks. In tribute to Mohawk skills and bravery in the wake of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, the National Museum of the American Indian is presenting a photo exhibit about their precarious vocation and rich history, compiled from archives and snapshots of ironworkers on the job.

"Booming Out: Mohawk Ironworkers build New York" refers to the transient lifestyle of these Native Americans, who travel from their reservations in upstate New York and southern Quebec to do structural steel work on skyscrapers, power plants, stadiums, arenas and bridges in New York and elsewhere. Starting in 1916, when they built the Hells Gate Bridge on the East River, Mohawks have worked on every major building project in New York City, including the George Washington and Verrazano Narrows bridges, the Empire State Building, the Unit The Associated Press Rachel Slager, of Chicago, right, and brother Jonathan Slager, of Blooming-ton, look at photographs on display at the National Museum of the American Indian exhibit "Booming Out: Mohawk Ironworkers build New York" in New York. Albany airport displays collections to talk about The Pharmacy That's All About Your Health By DONNA LIQUORI The Associated Press 'Private Eye IP "Private Eye li" runs through Sept. 9 at the third floor Albany International Airport Gallery. wonderful through serendipity.

The second time, by coincidence. The third one you're doomed." What compels people to collect things such as toasters, bowling balls and anvils drives the "Private Eye II" exhibition at the Albany International Airport Gallery. The goofy exhibition offers a respite for fliers who have to spend more time in an airport than before and who still may be jittery from We Cany Hospital Supplies and Equipment ALBANY To most people, toasters are simply a tool to, well, make toast. To Diane DeBlois, they are so much more. "Most collections start pretty much by accident," said DeBlois, who boasts 100 electric toasters dating to 1909.

"You find something 125 College Elmira 607-734-6714 627 Pennsylvania Elmira 607-732-8829 Sept. 11, curator Sharon Bates said. The first time around, the exhibit, which opened shortly after the terrorist attacks, featured collections of paper clips, cow anchors (heavy metal weights used to leash cows in unfenced fields) and natural habitats, like bird nests. People started calling and writing Bates, with tales of their compulsions, like the woman who claimed to have a treasure trove of car-squashed gloves. (They didn't make the show.) Bates can relate.

She has her own collection of more than 100 plastic green dog chew toys unchewed. She's exhibited them in other venues, but not at the airport. At the gallery, 2,500 square feet of turquoise and pink walls which includes an observation deck, there are several hundred plastic novelty rings, miniature chairs, antique alarm clocks, floral funerary wire forms, washboards, shoe trees, carnival paraphernalia, bird cages, Dopey and Trust in the form of 10 trucks, 44 years, and thousands of satisfied customers. That's quality. That's "64 7Aid QwmvLa Mary Clark, GRI jl jRealty Group! Associate Broker Enceedinn Your xpectahons! a THE BAILEY COMPANY HEATING AIR CONDITIONING 607-733-2032 www.TheBaileyCompany.com KB332' Rte Carpenter Rd Big Hats, XV sn Hies ml i jivV mm I 1 -r A An 1 PC 1t" I)ilily Iacv1' wm m.

its time to celebrate WITH SPECIAL SAVINGS on ALL YOUR FAVORITE LA-Z-B0Y STYLES! 1 NATIONAL SALE-AmWN CLIP THIS AD Ik "Jennings" La-Z-Boy Classics High Leg Reclineri'i hur 0 a a Si a a get 15 Off any of gfqur Regularly Priced Framed Prints 2' Financing Available To "WKfc Pinccchio dolls and plastic gorillas. There are also more traditional collections, such as Americana black salt and pepper shakers and cookie jar's, vintage hats and antique toy trucks. "It's more than just the object, it's the story," Bates said. The panels next to the collections include anecdotes on how each collector stumbled upon their passion. I For DeBlois, it was peer pressure.

Her childhood toaster, a Canadian General Electric Toastest made the year she was born, 1947, accompanied her throughout her life. A friend admired it and gave DeBlois and her husband another one. Then they happened upon one at a thrift shop, I They were off. "People started thinking of U6 when they saw toasters," she said. "At some point, there is a center of mass for collecting," DeBlois said.

"The best toasters came as gifts. They had become aware that toasters could be funny or weird or different' Now, the couple celebrates the toaster, holding a weekly breakfast club with friends. Frank Mouris displays miniature chairs, each measuring about 4 inches tall. The Rensselaer County filmmaker won an Oscar in the early 1970s for an animated short called "Frank's Film." He began his collection while making a short animated film Street." He needed the chairs for a counting segment -I-and he couldn't stop buying them. He will part with his 63 teeny chairs when the exhibition ends Sept.

donating them to a little girl.whosfe mother has cancer. Bowling balls line one wall of the exhibition. The collector was using them to decorate her garden and people just started leaving spares oh the porch. "I thought that bowling balls would look kind of cool to sort of edge gardens," said Randy Roberts, the deputy director of the Schenectady Museum. "I think it's the colors they are when they get wet.

They shimmer, kind of like marbles, stones on a beach. They're very pretty," she said. "It's not very deep, unfortunately. It's just fun." Nikki Hamill, who grew up in Del-mar, has 2,000 plastic rings, a collection she started when she was about 5. About 300 of them are displayed, from the kind found in machines to a 1940s decoder ring.

"I remember having a toy ring and losing it and dropping it behind the radiator. That was a bad feeling," said Hamilh an artist who lives in Boulder, now. "I'm really overcompensating." Michael Oatman's early television habits sparked his passion fcjr anvils. He started collecting anvils when they emerged in his art work. He created an image of the end of thfc world, orchestrated by Warner Bros.

"I thought that's what doom was like an anvil or safe falling out of the sky," he said. Fueled by a childhood of Road Runner cartoons, when he didn't know anvils actually had a use, Oat-man amassed a collection of more than 20 anvils and named his Troy studio "Falling Anvil Studio." "I like them because I think they're funny and for me, they're really kind of a goofy thing." Oat-man said. Cnupin Curd rimi K'M V3 Er Qualified "Embassy" Reclina-Rocker' Chaise Recliner "ffijtj Buyers til "Cardinal" Reclina-Rocker' Chaise Recliner $399 I Historic Dunn Field 546 Luce St. Elmira Southside 607-734-1270 Watch Greg Keagle Pitcher He spent 8 years in the minors with the San Diego Padres, Seattle Mariners and Detroit Tigers. He reached the Majors in 1996.

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