Seeing this is déjà vu all over again

Foam floods Martin Avenue in Santa Clara

Only visually, my experience was not foam, but paper pulp. I went in to work at the Boise Cascade St. Helens paper mill one morning to find some wanker had overfilled one of the pulp holding tanks for hours, 12, 16 no one knew, but the streets were filled with wet pulp. It was a huge mess. 

I was issued a hard hat (needed for outdoor work), rubber boots, and a firehose. I spent the better part of the week washing pulp down the drains. Really, really.

It was a good job in the sense that no one bothered me, I was on my own, and I had a straightforward task to accomplish. It was a bitch because - firehose! It required three people to light up the hose, me on the end, a guy about 10 feet behind me, and someone to turn on the water. Heaven forfend if one should not have a good grip on the hose, it was like 1,000 lb. bull cutting out of a chute. But once controlled, I could lay on the hose at a 45˚ angle, and just let it do all the work. Still I went home wet, and exhausted. Oh, and I had the dubious delight of two 16 hour days followed by 12 hour days till the mess was cleaned up, the union only allowed us two consecutive 16s, and after that we could only work 12s. I was in it for the money, so I always wanted the work.

The reason for the long hours was the roads were impassable, and so caused real problems, for the fork trucks, and other vehicles. 

I miss those days! I think what I miss is being young, and in terrific shape.