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Carleen the Welder

The Story of a Working Woman (1923-2006)

By Mitch DavisPublished 6 years ago 5 min read
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Carleen and Ralph's Wedding, 1945

1923 was a good year. On February 16, Howard Carter opened the inner burial chamber of Pharaoh Tutankhamen's tomb and found the sarcophagus. Not much later, on February 22, the first successful chinchilla farm in the US was established. Also in 1923, Time Magazine published its first issue, the first sound in a public film performance was at the Rialto Theater in New York City, Interpol was formed in Vienna, Babe Ruth hit two home-runs in a World Series game and the first planetarium opened at the Deutsche Museum in Munich. Above all that, Carleen Bates was born July 15, 1923.

You may have heard of Rosie the Riveter, but this is the story of Carleen the Welder. The third of eight children, Carleen grew up with a big family and lots of younger siblings to help look after. She became a hard and passionate worker (as well as a very competitive person) and set out in her career to become a teacher. She went to college at Northwest Nazarine, but with the rise of World War II her talents were needed elsewhere. Shortly after her time in college she worked at a shipyard as her contribution to the war effort. Here she became part of the large group of working women involved in industrial jobs throughout the nation.

Carleen worked at a shipyard in Oregon as a welder. Few women worked in military positions; instead they would work in factories, and other labor positions that men left behind when they went to war. Up to 30,000 women worked in the famous Kaiser shipyards in Portland, Oregon and Vancouver, Washington. They built ships including tankers, aircraft carriers, and merchant marine transportation ships. The shipyard labor demand offered an opportunity previously unknown and unreachable to women. They were paid equitable wages compared to men and in addition childcare centers were provided in places like Kaiser's shipyard. In fact, Kaiser (who viewed the child-care issue as a "production problem" due to complex worker schedules) constructed two large child-care centers, operating around the clock. The Kaiser centers could feed and care for as many as 450 children a day. It was a large success and a great step for childcare in the work industry and inspired others to offer similar accommodations. It wasn't the first time Kaiser made a break through in employee care; he had also established the first organized health care program for the employees of his construction, shipbuilding and steel mill enterprises in the late 1930s, but that was all before Carleen was even thinking about children.

Even though very few women made it into the higher paying jobs such as loftsmen (those who layout to scale the lines) and riggers (who would attend to the rigging of a sailing ship), they were still a much-needed support and help in the shipyard, workplaces and the war effort all around. Women would commonly be hired as helpers (who manufacture or assemble the structural parts of a ship), general laborers, electricians, and welders.

Carleen was one of these welders. Welding is a way to join similar metals together by melting and fusing the base metals being joined together and applying a filler metal. She'd stop at nothing to complete whatever task came her way, unless she didn't have the tool. One day, she was in need of a slag hammer in order to chip off extra slag. A slag hammer, or chipping hammer, has a cone-shaped nose with a sharp, flattened point and a helical barrel spring handle that's unique to welding and chipping hammers, making it easy to clean and remove slag from welds and an important tool for any welder. To solver her problem, Carleen went over to a fellow welder and asked to borrow one. His name was Ralph Davidson and he refused to let her borrow his. Annoyed, she returned to her work. The next day Ralph approached her, he had gone home to his workshop the previous day and made her a slag hammer.

1945 was another good year. Pepe LePew debuted in the Warner Brothers Cartoon "Odor-able Kitty" on January 3, International Women's Day was first observed on March 8, and one day before Nicaragua became the first nation to formally accept the UN Charter on July 6, Carleen and Ralph were married. Yet, 1945 also proved to be a sad year. The Los Angeles Railway was forced to close on January 10, the USSR invaded Austria and Lord Haw-Haw reports total German victory in the Ardennes. Just a few days after their marriage, Ralph was sent to the Phillippines in the army. Later, he was sent to Japan to help "cleanup." He stripped down ships, taking apart their weaponry and for the time being Carleen was on her own adventure.

Carleen focused once again on her career. She became a teacher at a single-building schoolhouse in Midvale, Idaho. There she taught everything, from history to math and even coached the women's basketball team (she had played in college previously). Later, she became an English teacher and eventually taught special education.

Ralph returned from war and they moved to Fruitland where Ralph started a welding business with his best friend, doing freelance work. Carleen helped Ralph get through college at Colorado A&I (what is now Colorado State) for his teaching degree and even helped him study; he never would have made it through without her, but when Ralph's best friend took all their equipment and left they were forced to move on.

Ralph wasn't very fond of teaching when he tried his hand at it, but was helping at a dairy farm in Daisy, Washington and found he had a knack for it, so, they began a diary farm and had four children. They were taught very early in life about hard work and early mornings. They also learned very quickly that Carleen wore the pants in the family. She kept everything running and kept strong through everything. She passed her dedication and commitment on to her children.

2006 wasn't a great year. The Madrid Barajas International Airport was bombed, the Chinese River Dolphin was announced extinct, Pluto was demoted to a dwarf planet and Cyclone Larry made a landfall in Eastern Australia, which destroyed most of the country's banana crops and on October 14, 2006 Carleen passed away. She was more than just a woman, she was a hard-worker, a wife, a cook, a teacher, a poet, a painter, a mother, the head of a household and an amazing grandmother. I'll never forget her love for cows, her competitiveness, and baking chocolate cake with her.

Carleen Davidson, the welder, the worker, the grandmother.

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