Re: 55 years ago..........

Eldon called working the rotary "the wheel of fortune", because you made a small one when you got done. When they were out on the line they got paid for continuoous service until they got to the other terminal. His time book shows what he made. I don;t recall the amount but it was about 4x what his normal paychecks were.
Yes, the rotary will shake the fillings out of your teeth. You get soaking wet from all that melting snow and its damned hot in there. You never saw a rotary crew wearing heavy coats.
We always ran the rotary as the first thing in the spring. We'd all show up flabby and out of shape from the winter lay-off and dive headfirst into 4-5 12+hour days of serious work. After the
initial excitement wore off, all we wanted to do was go home and sleep for a week.