My wife converted the union local I had served for forty years into “her” project on the chapter Facebook page, but the dues book in my locker had every member who had named me their steward.
My wife converted the union local I had served for forty years into “her” project on the chapter Facebook page, but the dues book in my locker had every member who had named me their steward.
My name is Alton Booker.
I am seventy years old.
I am a retired International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 136 journeyman electrician out of Birmingham, Alabama.
I worked forty-two years on the IBEW Local 136 line from the first Monday of June of 1977 to the third Friday of August of 2019.
I served eighteen consecutive years as an elected chapter steward from the second Monday of October of 1991 to the third Tuesday of October of 2019.
I trained seventeen IBEW Local 136 apprentices in person on construction sites across Jefferson County from the autumn of 1981 to the spring of 2019.
I walked five contract strikes — two thousand sixty-eight cumulative picket-line hours — on the IBEW Local 136 contract negotiations of 1984, 1992, 1999, 2006, and 2014.
I helped negotiate the 2014 dental rider that gave Local 136 the dental coverage every member’s family still carries.
I live at 1148 Cabrini Street on the east side of Birmingham, Alabama.
The Cabrini Street house is a small 1962 one-story brick rambler with a small detached garage on the west side, a small front-yard pin oak that I planted with my late father-in-law James Booker in the spring of 1979, and a small back-yard garage workbench shed I built myself with cinder block and steel beams in the autumn of 1985.
My wife is Gayle Mae Booker.
Gayle is sixty-seven years old.
Gayle is a retired Birmingham City School System elementary-school administrative secretary from the autumn of 1981 to the third Friday of May of 2018.
Gayle and I have been married for forty-four years as of the third Saturday of June of last year.
Since the third Friday of August of 2019 — the day I retired from Local 136 — Gayle has assumed administration of the IBEW Local 136 Birmingham Chapter community Facebook page.
The chapter community page was started by my late chapter chairman Clayton Wendell McKee in the autumn of 2013 as a small chapter-bulletin-board page for membership news, Christmas drive collections, and apprentice-graduation announcements.
Clayton Wendell McKee passed away in the autumn of 2017.
The chapter chairman from 2018 to 2024 was Louis “Lou” Henry Washington, age seventy-three, my friend since the second Monday of October of 1979, retired in the spring of 2024.
Gayle’s nephew on my mother-in-law’s side is Marcus Caldwell.
Marcus is thirty-four years old.
Marcus is a small-business digital-analytics contractor based out of a small two-room office at 411 Twenty-First Street North in downtown Birmingham.
Marcus has been the unpaid analytics administrator on the chapter community Facebook page since the second Monday of January of 2020.
The small bedroom at the east end of the second-floor hall at 1148 Cabrini Street was the small spare bedroom from the spring of 1979 to the third Friday of August of 2019.
On the first Monday morning of September of 2019, eleven days after my retirement, Gayle moved a small white IKEA writing desk and a small white IKEA bookcase and a small grey IKEA office chair into the spare bedroom.
Gayle labeled the small spare bedroom door with a small white paper card in her own elementary-school-secretary handwriting that read “GAYLE’S OFFICE.”
The card has been on the door for six years and three months as of last Tuesday.
The small spare bedroom holds, in the north-east corner of the room, a small white IKEA writing desk.
The small writing desk holds, at the south-east corner, a small fifteen-inch HP all-in-one desktop computer with a small black wireless keyboard and a small black wireless mouse.
The HP holds, at the front-page browser of the second Tuesday afternoon of last September, the small IBEW Local 136 Birmingham Chapter community Facebook page.
The small home tool drawer at the west wall of the small back-yard garage workbench shed at 1148 Cabrini Street holds, at the front-left compartment, a single 1983 Klein-pattern brass-handled wire-stripper.
The Klein is six and three-eighths inches long, three-eighths of an inch wide at the jaw, with a small high-carbon-steel cutting blade at the jaw and a small brass-cast handle scale stamped “KLEIN — MADE IN U.S.A. — 1983.”
The Klein has a small two-and-three-quarter-inch handle length, a small cut-depth-adjustment screw at the pivot, and a small leather-wrapped grip on the left handle.
The cut-depth-adjustment screw is set at a small two-and-one-half-turn tightness — the cut-depth setting I have used on twelve-gauge solid copper wire since the autumn of 1985.
I bought the 1983 Klein-pattern brass-handled wire-stripper at the small Birmingham Tool and Supply counter on Twenty-Eighth Street South at the small six-fourteen morning of the second Wednesday of June of 1983 — the morning I made journeyman on the IBEW Local 136 apprentice-board sign-off at the small union hall on Fifteenth Avenue North.
The Klein cost thirty-four dollars and eighteen cents at the counter.
I paid in cash from my own back pocket.
I have used the Klein on five hundred and four documented job sites across Jefferson County from the autumn of 1983 through the spring of 2019.
On the second Tuesday afternoon of last September, at three-fourteen, Gayle stood at the small east-hall doorway of the small spare bedroom on the second floor of 1148 Cabrini Street.
I was in the small bedroom at the west end of the second-floor hall — our marriage bedroom — at three-fourteen, folding a small Tuesday-laundry stack of pressed shop-towels at the small mahogany dresser at the south wall.
Gayle held a small iPhone-13 in her right hand at three-fourteen.
Gayle said, in the bright cheerful retake voice she had been using since the autumn of 2019: “Honey.
The international rep is doing a feature on the chapter for the centennial.
I told her about MY work running the community page and the Christmas drives the last six years.
She wants to quote me.
You don’t need to come.”
Gayle hung up at three-fifteen.
I held the small folded pressed shop-towel at the small mahogany dresser for fourteen seconds at three-fifteen.
I set the small folded pressed shop-towel on the small pressed-laundry stack at three-sixteen.
I walked from the marriage bedroom down the second-floor hall at three-seventeen.
I walked down the small wood-runner staircase to the first floor at three-eighteen.
I walked through the kitchen, out the back-screen door, across the small back lawn to the small back-yard garage workbench shed at three-twenty.
The small home tool drawer at the west wall held, at the front-left compartment, the 1983 Klein-pattern brass-handled wire-stripper at three-twenty-one.
I lifted the Klein out of the front-left compartment at three-twenty-two.
The small leather-wrapped grip on the left handle was cool to the touch.
The small high-carbon-steel cutting blade at the jaw caught the small three-twenty-two afternoon light at the small overhead workbench bulb in a small soft six-degree angle.
I weighed the Klein in my right hand for fourteen seconds.
The Klein weighed seven and one-half ounces.
I set the Klein back into the front-left compartment of the small home tool drawer at three-twenty-three.
I drove the 1998 Chevrolet Silverado pickup from the small front-yard driveway at 1148 Cabrini Street west on Cabrini, south on Twentieth Street, west on Fifteenth Avenue North to the small IBEW Local 136 Birmingham Chapter union hall at 411 Fifteenth Avenue North at three-forty-eight.
I walked through the front lobby of the union hall at three-fifty-one.
I walked down the short east hall to the locker room at three-fifty-two.
My old work locker at the small steel-cabinet south wall of the locker room was locker number 136, a small unpainted steel cabinet with a small Master combination padlock at the latch and a small white-painted nameplate at the front face that read “BOOKER 136” in my own block-letter handwriting from the autumn of 1991.
I opened the Master combination padlock with the small combination 18-44-91 at three-fifty-three.
The locker held, on the small top shelf, a small worn dark-green office-binder with a small handwritten label in my own block letters at the front cover that read “LOCAL 136 DUES — 1991 to 2019.”
The dues book was three inches wide at the spine.
The dues book held two hundred and forty-eight white college-ruled binder pages, one page per IBEW Local 136 active member at the chapter rolls from the second Monday of October of 1991 through the third Tuesday of October of 2019.
Each page held, at the top header line in my own pencil, the member’s full name, the year of journeyman card issuance, the year of chapter sign-on, and a small handwritten note of any chapter office held.
Each page held, in the body, the small monthly dues receipt entries in my own pencil — eight to twelve entries per page per year of active membership — across the twenty-eight years of my elected steward tenure.
Gayle has not been in the small Local 136 union hall on Fifteenth Avenue North since the third Saturday afternoon of June of 2018, eight years ago — the chapter Christmas-in-July picnic where she sat at a small folding chair at the small back patio for forty-eight minutes before leaving early with my mother-in-law’s small standing-rib heart palpitations.
Gayle has not been in the small locker room at the south wall since the spring of 2014 — the small ten-year chapter Mother’s Day brunch the chapter wives’ committee organized at the small front lobby.
Gayle does not know I kept the small dark-green office-binder in the small steel cabinet.
I lifted the small dark-green office-binder off the top shelf at three-fifty-four.
The binder weighed three pounds and eleven ounces.
I carried the binder down the short east hall, through the front lobby, out the front door, to the small driveway at the small Chevrolet Silverado pickup at three-fifty-eight.
I drove east on Fifteenth Avenue, north on Twentieth Street, east on Cabrini, into the small front-yard driveway at 1148 Cabrini Street at four-fourteen.
I set the small dark-green dues-book binder on the small kitchen table at the small north window of the kitchen at four-eighteen.
I lifted the small cell phone from the small east-hall console at four-twenty.
I dialed Lou Washington.
Lou Washington answered on the third ring at four-twenty-one on the second Tuesday afternoon of last September.
Lou said: “Alton. You are calling on a Tuesday at four-twenty. The dues book is in the locker or it is on your kitchen table. Which is it.”
I said: “Lou. The dues book is on the kitchen table. Gayle was at the small east-hall doorway of the spare bedroom at three-fourteen. She said the international rep is doing a centennial feature on the chapter. She said the rep wants to quote her. She said I don’t need to come. She said HER work on the community page and the Christmas drives the last six years.”
Lou was quiet for fourteen seconds at four-twenty-two.
Lou said: “Alton. Who is the rep.”
I said: “Lou. I do not know yet.”
Lou said: “I will call the IBEW International field office at Eighth and Florida on the second Wednesday morning at seven-oh-eight and find out. I will call Bev Haynes the chapter historian at the small Florence Avenue duplex at seven-eleven and ask her to pull the 1991-to-2019 chapter office-list records. I will call the chapter treasurer Ridley Knapp at the small Avondale rambler at seven-fourteen and ask him to pull the chapter community-fund statements for the past six years. I will pick you up at the small Cabrini driveway at eight-eleven. We will drive to the small IBEW International field office at Eighth and Florida. Bring the dues book.”
Lou hung up at four-twenty-five.
Lou is seventy-three and a retired IBEW Local 136 chapter chairman from the spring of 2018 to the spring of 2024.
Lou and I have known each other since the second Monday of October of 1979 — the first chapter meeting I attended after Local 136 sent me down to my first construction job, the small Pratt Coke and Coal plant retrofit at the small north side of the city.
Lou ran the cable on the same Pratt-Coke crew.
Lou and I worked the second Friday of November of 1981 funeral together — the small Forest Hill Cemetery service for our first apprentice Hollis Robert Tarrant, age twenty-one, killed at four-eleven on a Thursday afternoon job site at the small Birmingham Trust Tower project when a small twelve-foot copper ground bar he was running from the small basement vault to the small mechanical room came loose at a small ceiling clip and pinned him at the small concrete back wall.
The 1981 funeral was on the second Saturday morning of November at the small First African Baptist Church on Fourth Avenue North at eleven-oh-one.
I gave a small five-minute eulogy at the small altar at eleven-fourteen.
Gayle sat at the small back-row pew at the south side of the church.
Gayle wore a small dark-navy wool dress and a small black wool coat she had bought at the small Loveman’s department store on Friday afternoon.
Gayle held a small white linen handkerchief in her left hand.
I spoke about Hollis’s grandmother Eula Tarrant who taught him to wire a small porch lamp at six years old on the small Forest Hill front porch.
I spoke about Hollis’s first journeyman card issued at the small union hall on the second Tuesday of June of 1981 — five months before he died.
I spoke about Hollis’s small Klein wire-strippers his uncle bought him at the small Birmingham Tool and Supply counter at the small graduation-card register on the first Saturday of July of 1981.
I spoke about the small Pratt-Coke crew that had taught him to read a small floor plan in two evenings at the small Local 136 hall.
I did not look at Gayle at the small back-row pew during the small five minutes at the altar.
Gayle drove me from the small First African Baptist Church to the small Forest Hill Cemetery and back to 1148 Cabrini Street at twelve-fifty-eight at the small post-service drive.
Gayle did not say anything during the drive.
Gayle made me a small ham-and-mustard sandwich on a small piece of small Wonder Bread at the small kitchen table at eleven-fourteen at night.
I did not eat the sandwich.
Gayle did not say anything for the small twenty minutes I sat at the small kitchen table.
I sat at the small kitchen table on the second Tuesday afternoon of last September at four-twenty-eight and held the small dark-green dues-book binder under my right palm.
The 1981 silence at the back pew of the small First African Baptist Church was the silence I had carried under my right palm for forty-three years and eleven months as the small frame of “Gayle knows the weight of this.”
The 1994 strike line came up in my right shoulder at four-thirty-one on the second Tuesday afternoon of last September.
The 1994 strike had been the third Friday morning of June at the small Local 136 contract picket line at the small main gate of the McGriff Industrial Complex on the south side of the city.
The strike ran for fourteen weeks and four days.
I walked the small four-to-eight afternoon shift at the main gate on three hundred and one consecutive days.
Gayle did not visit the small main gate during the fourteen weeks.
Gayle baked one small dozen of small chocolate chip cookies for the small Wednesday-afternoon picnic at the small back lot at the small union hall on the eleventh Wednesday of the strike.
The small dozen of cookies was one of forty-eight small dozens at the small Wednesday-afternoon picnic.
I lifted the small Tuesday-afternoon coffee mug at four-thirty-three on the second Tuesday afternoon of last September.
Lou picked me up at the small Cabrini driveway at eight-eleven on the second Wednesday morning of September.
Lou drove me west on Cabrini, south on Twentieth Street, west on Fifth Avenue North to the small IBEW International field office at the small Eighth Avenue and Florida Street intersection at eight-forty-eight.
The IBEW International field office held, at the front-counter, a forty-eight-year-old IBEW International field representative named Sandra Odom out of the small Memphis Tennessee regional headquarters.
Sandra Odom said, at the front-counter at eight-fifty-one: “Mr. Booker.
Mr. Washington.
The chapter centennial feature is on my desk.
The interview subject is your wife Gayle Booker on the chapter community page management for the past six years.
The deadline is the second Friday of October — five weeks from today.
I am willing to expand the interview pool to include the small chapter stewards, the small chapter historian, the small chapter chairman, and any small chapter members the chapter votes into the centennial-feature subject list at the small chapter meeting.”
Lou said, at the front-counter at nine-oh-one: “Sandra.
The next chapter meeting is the third Tuesday evening of October at the small union hall on Fifteenth Avenue North at seven-oh-one.
We will put a small centennial-history-correction item on the agenda.”
Sandra Odom signed a small note in the small Memphis IBEW International field-office binder at nine-oh-three: “Centennial feature interview pool expanded at request of chapter chairman emeritus Louis Washington — pending chapter membership vote on third Tuesday of October.”
Sandra handed Lou a small copy of the small note at nine-oh-four.
Lou folded the small note into the small inside-left pocket of his small khaki workshirt at nine-oh-five.
Lou drove me from the small Eighth-and-Florida field office back to 1148 Cabrini Street at nine-eighteen.
Lou parked at the small front-yard driveway at nine-forty-one.
Lou sat at the small kitchen table at nine-forty-five with a small cup of weak black coffee from the small Mr. Coffee on the small north counter.
The small dark-green dues-book binder was at the center of the kitchen table.
Lou opened the dues book at the second Monday of October of 1991 first-month page at nine-forty-eight.
Lou ran his right index finger down the small handwritten dues-receipt entries for forty-eight active members in October of 1991.
Lou read aloud the small page-header line for member Harlan Eugene Watters: “Harlan Watters — journeyman card 1979 — chapter sign-on 1980 — apprentice chair 1996-2002.”
Lou said: “Alton. Bev Haynes will be at her small Florence Avenue duplex at eleven this morning. Ridley Knapp will have the small chapter community-fund six-year statement ready by Friday at the small Avondale rambler. We will pull the small membership-vote records at the small chapter office on Friday afternoon at two.”
Lou closed the dues book at ten-eleven.
Lou drove out of the small front-yard driveway at ten-fourteen.
Bev Haynes met me and Lou at the small Florence Avenue duplex at eleven-oh-one on the second Wednesday morning of last September.
Bev is sixty-eight and the IBEW Local 136 chapter historian since the autumn of 2014.
Bev was a thirty-six-year Local 136 wife of the late Local 136 chapter business manager Donald Edward Haynes who passed away in the spring of 2012 at the age of seventy-one from complications of small-cell lung cancer.
Bev has kept the IBEW Local 136 Birmingham Chapter office-list records, apprentice-graduation records, and membership-vote records in a small steel filing cabinet at the back-left corner of her small Florence Avenue dining room since the autumn of 2014.
Bev pulled the 1991-to-2019 chapter office-list records from the small steel filing cabinet at eleven-oh-four.
The records held, at the small top binder, a single white card per chapter member who had held a small chapter office at any small two-year term from the autumn of 1991 to the autumn of 2019.
Each card held, at the top header in Bev’s small block-letter handwriting, the member’s full name, the chapter office held, the term-of-service years, and a small chapter-roll cross-reference initial.
Bev pulled the Alton Booker card from the small steel filing cabinet at eleven-oh-six.
The Alton Booker card read, in Bev’s small block letters: “ALTON ROBERT BOOKER — CHAPTER STEWARD — 1991-1993, 1993-1995, 1995-1997, 1997-1999, 1999-2001, 2001-2003, 2003-2005, 2005-2007, 2007-2009 [ALSO APPRENTICE-COORDINATOR], 2009-2011, 2011-2013 [ALSO PICNIC-CHAIR], 2013-2015, 2015-2017 [ALSO CHRISTMAS-DRIVE-CHAIR], 2017-2019 — NINE TWO-YEAR TERMS — EIGHTEEN CONSECUTIVE YEARS.”
Bev pulled the Gayle Booker card from the small steel filing cabinet at eleven-oh-eight.
The Gayle Booker card read, in Bev’s small block letters: “GAYLE MAE BOOKER — NO CHAPTER OFFICE HELD — 1991-2019.”
Bev set the two cards side-by-side on the small dining-room table at eleven-eleven.
Lou and I drove from the small Florence Avenue duplex to the small Avondale rambler at Ridley Knapp’s small east-side dining-room table at two-eleven on the second Friday afternoon of September.
Ridley Knapp is sixty-six and the IBEW Local 136 chapter treasurer since the second Tuesday of October of 2017.
Ridley spent thirty-eight years as a small Local 136 journeyman electrician on the small Bellsouth-Southern-Bell-AT-T downtown switching-office crew before retiring in the spring of 2017.
Ridley pulled the small chapter community-fund six-year statements from the small Avondale steel filing cabinet at two-fourteen.
Ridley laid the small statements on the small dining-room table from January of 2020 through August of last year in the small left-to-right order.
The chapter community-fund six-year statements showed seventy-two consecutive monthly disbursements from the small chapter community-fund Wells Fargo account at the small Twentieth Street North branch to a single small payee.
The single small payee on each of the seventy-two monthly disbursements was Gayle Mae Booker of 1148 Cabrini Street.
The disbursement amount on each of the seventy-two monthly disbursements was two hundred dollars.
The disbursement memo line on each of the seventy-two monthly disbursements was “Page management honorarium.”
The total seventy-two-month disbursement was fourteen thousand four hundred dollars.
Ridley pulled the small membership-vote records from the small steel filing cabinet at two-twenty-eight.
The membership-vote records held no small membership-approved vote for a small page-management honorarium at any small chapter meeting from the second Tuesday of October of 2019 to the second Tuesday of August of last year.
The vote records did hold a small membership-approved vote on the second Tuesday of January of 2020 to “approve the chapter community page as an unpaid volunteer chapter-information service under the small chapter bylaws of 1991.”
Ridley said, at the dining-room table at two-thirty-one: “Alton.
The community page is a small unpaid volunteer chapter-information service per the small January-2020 vote.
The fourteen thousand four hundred dollars is unapproved.
The small chapter community-fund is a small membership-restricted account under the small chapter bylaws.
The small chapter bylaws require a small two-thirds membership vote on any small recurring disbursement from the small community-fund.
The small recurring disbursement to Gayle Mae Booker has no small two-thirds membership vote at any small chapter meeting from October 2019 through last month.”
I sat at the small Avondale dining-room table at two-thirty-three.
Lou said: “Alton. We pull the small Gayle Facebook page next. We pull the screenshots of the small Klein-photograph post next. We get Crystal.”
Crystal Caldwell is Marcus Caldwell’s wife.
Crystal is thirty-two and a small Birmingham Public Library reference librarian at the small Avondale branch on Forty-First Street South.
Crystal sat at the small Avondale dining-room table at three-eleven on the second Friday afternoon of September.
Crystal opened the small Apple MacBook Air at the small dining-room table at three-fourteen.
Crystal pulled the small “MARCUS — IBEW CHAPTER” folder on the small MacBook desktop at three-fifteen.
The folder held a small set of forty-eight color screenshots of small IBEW Local 136 Birmingham Chapter community Facebook page posts from the small page management dashboard view from the second Monday of January of 2020 through the second Wednesday of September of last year.
Crystal opened the second Tuesday of August post from last year at three-eighteen.
The post was a small color photograph at the front-page feed of the chapter community page.
The photograph was a small overhead shot of a small dark-walnut tabletop with a single small 1983 Klein-pattern brass-handled wire-stripper at the small center of the table.
The caption below the small photograph read: “Alton’s tools — which the chapter fund helped him buy — built half the union electrical work in this town.
Forty-two years of service.
We treasure these tools as much as we treasure him.
– Gayle on behalf of the chapter.”
I lifted the small dark-green dues-book binder from the small Avondale dining-room table at three-twenty-one.
The small page at the back of the binder labeled “JOURNEYMAN TOOL RECEIPTS — A. R. BOOKER — 1983 to 2019” held a small handwritten entry in my own pencil at the first line: “1983 KLEIN-PATTERN BRASS-HANDLED WIRE-STRIPPER — BIRMINGHAM TOOL AND SUPPLY — 28TH STREET SOUTH — JUNE 8, 1983 — $34.18 — PURCHASED FROM A. R. BOOKER PERSONAL FUND — FOUR YEARS BEFORE ELECTED STEWARD.”
The small chapter community-fund was founded by the small Local 136 chapter membership vote on the third Tuesday of November of 1987.
The 1983 Klein-pattern brass-handled wire-stripper was purchased four years and five months before the small chapter community-fund existed.
Crystal printed the small Klein-photograph post from the small MacBook to the small Avondale household HP printer at three-twenty-eight.
Crystal handed me the small printed page at three-twenty-nine.
I set the small printed page beside the small Bev Haynes Alton Booker card and the small Bev Haynes Gayle Booker card and the small Ridley Knapp seventy-two-month disbursement statement and the small January 2020 membership-vote record at three-thirty-one.
Crystal said, at the small Avondale dining-room table at three-thirty-three: “Mr. Booker.
Marcus has tagged Mrs. Booker as the chapter community-page co-administrator at the small page settings since the second Monday of January of 2020.
Marcus has uploaded one hundred and forty-one small archival chapter photographs to the small community-page album view from 1989 through 2019.
Marcus has tagged Mrs. Booker as the only small visible person in eighty-one of the one hundred and forty-one small archival photographs at the small caption.
Of those eighty-one, the small archival photographs from the small 2014 chapter dental-rider contract negotiations originally held you at the front-row of the small chapter-hall photograph as elected steward.
Marcus has cropped the small front-row to remove you at the small editing step at the album view.
I told Marcus in the small kitchen on the second Saturday of August that the cropping was not right.
Marcus said the cropping was Gayle’s small editorial call.”
Crystal handed me a small Apple AirDrop transfer of the eighty-one small archival photographs at three-thirty-eight.
Crystal forwarded the small set to Lou’s small Gmail at three-thirty-nine.
Lou forwarded the small set to Bev Haynes’s small Gmail at three-forty.
Bev replied at the small Florence Avenue duplex at three-fifty-eight with a small two-line email: “Lou. I will print the eighty-one originals from the small chapter-historian archive flash-drive tonight. We will lay them at the small chapter meeting on the third Tuesday of October.”
The third Tuesday evening of October at the small IBEW Local 136 Birmingham Chapter union hall on Fifteenth Avenue North at seven-oh-one was the small monthly chapter meeting.
The small meeting hall held one hundred and forty-one active and retired IBEW Local 136 members at the small folding-chair rows facing the small north-wall lectern.
The small north-wall lectern was a small wood-frame podium with a small IBEW Local 136 chapter banner in green and white at the small front face.
The small chapter chairman from the spring of 2024 was Wendell Trafton, age sixty-two, an active-duty Local 136 senior journeyman elected in the small spring chapter vote.
Wendell sat at the small north-wall chairman’s chair at the lectern at seven-oh-one.
Lou sat at the small east-wall chapter chairman emeritus chair at seven-oh-one.
Sandra Odom sat at the small south-wall IBEW International field-representative observer chair at seven-oh-one.
Bev Haynes sat at the small west-wall chapter historian chair with the small steel binder of the eighty-one printed archival photographs and the small white card on Alton Booker and the small white card on Gayle Booker at her right side at seven-oh-one.
Ridley Knapp sat at the small north-wall chapter treasurer chair with the small steel folder of the seventy-two-month chapter community-fund Wells Fargo disbursements and the small membership-vote records binder at his right side at seven-oh-one.
Crystal Caldwell sat at the small south-east-corner spectator chair with the small Apple AirDrop folder of the eighty-one archival photographs on her phone at seven-oh-one.
I sat at the small front-row east chair with the small dark-green dues-book binder under my right palm at seven-oh-one.
Gayle sat at the small fourth-row west chair with her small iPhone-13 in her right hand at seven-oh-one.
Marcus Caldwell sat at the small fourth-row east chair beside Gayle at seven-oh-one.
Wendell opened the chapter meeting at seven-oh-two with the small standing prayer and the small chapter-roll call.
Wendell read the small printed agenda at seven-eleven.
The third agenda item read “Centennial-history-correction — Alton Booker.”
Wendell called the third agenda item at seven-twenty-eight.
I stood at the small front-row east chair at seven-twenty-eight.
I walked to the small north-wall lectern at seven-twenty-nine.
I set the small dark-green dues-book binder on the small lectern at seven-twenty-nine.
I read, at the small lectern microphone at seven-thirty in my own pencil from a single small white-paper page in my front-shirt pocket: “Brothers and Sisters of Local 136.
This dues book is my own.
The first page is dated the second Monday of October of 1991.
The last page is dated the third Friday of August of 2019.
Two hundred and forty-eight members at the chapter rolls of those years are in here in my own handwriting.
Every two-year term I served as your elected steward is in here at the small header of every page.
Brother Lou Washington has the chapter community-fund Wells Fargo disbursement records for the past six years.
The records show seventy-two consecutive monthly payments at two hundred dollars to a single payee — fourteen thousand four hundred dollars — under a memo line that reads ‘page management honorarium.’
Sister Bev Haynes has the membership-vote records for the past six years.
The records hold no membership-approved vote for a page management honorarium.
Sister Crystal Caldwell has eighty-one chapter archival photographs from 1989 to 2019 that have been re-tagged at the small community-page album view since the second Monday of January of 2020.
The 2014 dental-rider negotiation front-row photograph at the chapter hall has been cropped at the small editing step.
The page is not the dues book.
The dues book is the dues book.
Anyone here who wants to read their own name in it can read their own name in it.
Thank you.”
I stepped back from the small north-wall lectern at seven-thirty-three.
Lou walked to the small lectern at seven-thirty-four.
Lou set the small chapter community-fund Wells Fargo six-year statement on the small lectern at seven-thirty-five.
Lou read the small total disbursement at the small bottom-right corner of the small statement: “Fourteen thousand four hundred dollars.”
Lou set the small white card from Bev Haynes on Alton Booker on the small lectern at seven-thirty-six.
Lou read the small bottom line: “Eighteen consecutive years.”
Lou set the small white card from Bev Haynes on Gayle Booker on the small lectern at seven-thirty-seven.
Lou read the small middle line: “No chapter office held.”
Lou set the small printed second-Tuesday-of-August Klein-photograph post on the small lectern at seven-thirty-eight.
Lou read the small caption.
Lou set the small dues-book page on the back of the binder with the small handwritten 1983 Klein-pattern brass-handled wire-stripper receipt on the small lectern at seven-thirty-nine.
Lou read the small date and the small dollar amount and the small four-years-before-elected-steward line.
Gayle stood at the small fourth-row west chair at seven-forty-one.
Gayle said, in the small constricted version of the bright cheerful retake voice with a small higher pitch and a small fast tremor at the corner of her left jaw: “Alton.
This is humiliating.
You did this in front of the entire chapter?
You couldn’t have just talked to me?”
I stayed at the small east-side of the small north-wall lectern at seven-forty-one.
I said: “The dues book stays here. Anyone who wants to read their own name in it, can.”
I walked to the small front-row east chair at seven-forty-two.
I sat at the small front-row east chair at seven-forty-two.
Gayle stood at the small fourth-row west chair at seven-forty-three.
Gayle walked to the small back of the meeting hall at seven-forty-four.
Gayle exited the small east-side door of the meeting hall at seven-forty-five.
The chapter membership voted at seven-fifty-eight on a small motion put forward by Sister Bev Haynes and seconded by Brother Wendell Trafton.
The motion read: “The chapter authorizes Brother Alton Booker as the primary subject of the IBEW Local 136 Birmingham Chapter centennial feature, lists Brother Louis Washington and Sister Bev Haynes as additional centennial-feature interview subjects, requires Sister Gayle Booker to repay the small chapter community-fund the unapproved seventy-two-month disbursement of fourteen thousand four hundred dollars at the rate of six hundred dollars per month across twenty-four months, removes Brother Marcus Caldwell as analytics-administrator of the chapter community page, and transfers chapter community-page administration to Brother Louis Washington’s daughter Sister Camille Washington-Daye effective on the first Monday of November of this year.”
The motion passed at the small chapter meeting at eight-oh-one with one hundred and thirty-eight in favor, zero opposed, and three abstentions.
Sandra Odom signed the small IBEW International field-representative observer attestation at the small south-wall observer chair at eight-oh-three.
Wendell closed the small chapter meeting at eight-fourteen.
Marcus Caldwell stood at the small fourth-row east chair at eight-fifteen.
Marcus walked to the small back of the meeting hall at eight-sixteen.
Marcus exited the small east-side door at eight-seventeen.
Crystal Caldwell handed the small Apple AirDrop folder of the eighty-one archival photographs to Bev Haynes at the small west-wall chair at eight-twenty-one.
Bev signed the small chapter-historian archive receipt at eight-twenty-two.
Ridley Knapp handed Sandra Odom a small certified-copy folder of the seventy-two-month chapter community-fund Wells Fargo statements at the small south-wall observer chair at eight-twenty-eight.
Sandra Odom signed the small IBEW International field-representative receipt at eight-twenty-nine.
Lou walked with me from the small front-row east chair to the small parking lot east of the union hall at eight-thirty-eight.
Lou said: “Alton. Camille starts at the small chapter community-page administrator desk at the small union hall on the first Monday of November. Camille will run the small chapter-information service per the small January-2020 vote. The small chapter community-fund repayment plan begins on the first Friday of November at six hundred dollars.”
I drove the 1998 Chevrolet Silverado pickup from the small union-hall parking lot east on Fifteenth Avenue, north on Twentieth Street, east on Cabrini, to the small front-yard driveway at 1148 Cabrini Street at nine-eleven.
The Cabrini Street house was small and dark at nine-eleven.
Gayle was not at the small house.
Gayle had driven the 2014 Toyota Camry to her sister Bernita Tarrant’s small Forest Hill rambler on Trinity Avenue South after the chapter meeting at seven-forty-eight.
Gayle stayed at the small Forest Hill rambler from the small Tuesday evening of October at seven-forty-eight to the small Saturday afternoon of the third week of October at three-eighteen.
The IBEW International field representative Sandra Odom mailed the small certified field-office case file VT-IBEW-INT-2024-136-CHC to the small IBEW International Memphis Tennessee regional headquarters at three-eleven on the second Friday afternoon of the third week of October.
The small case file held a small fourteen-page summary of the chapter meeting, the small chapter community-fund Wells Fargo six-year statement, the small membership-vote record, the small eighty-one archival-photograph re-tagging documentation, the small Marcus Caldwell analytics-administrator removal vote, and the small Sister Camille Washington-Daye chapter community-page administrator transfer vote.
The IBEW International Memphis Tennessee regional headquarters confirmed receipt at four-fourteen on the second Monday afternoon of the fourth week of October.
The IBEW International Memphis Tennessee regional headquarters published the small IBEW Local 136 Birmingham Chapter centennial feature in the small November issue of the small IBEW International Electrical Worker magazine on the third Wednesday of November.
The small centennial feature was a small four-page piece on pages forty-four through forty-eight of the small November issue under the small byline “Sandra Odom, IBEW International Field Representative, Memphis Tennessee.”
The small feature named Brother Alton Robert Booker prominently in the small subhead and in the small one-thousand-and-forty-eight-word body text as the small chapter’s elected steward of eighteen consecutive years from 1991 to 2019.
The small feature named Brother Louis Henry Washington as the small chapter chairman emeritus from 2018 to 2024.
The small feature named Sister Bev Haynes as the small chapter historian since 2014.
The small feature listed Sister Gayle Mae Booker at the small back-page acknowledgments section as a “small chapter community-page contributor from 2020 to last year.”
The small Bernita Tarrant Forest Hill rambler Trinity-Avenue-South phone rang at the small front-yard driveway at 1148 Cabrini Street at three-fourteen on the third Saturday afternoon of October.
Gayle arrived at the small front-yard driveway at 1148 Cabrini Street at three-eighteen.
Gayle walked through the small front door at three-twenty-one with a small overnight bag in her right hand.
Gayle walked up the small wood-runner staircase to the small bedroom at the west end of the second-floor hall at three-twenty-three.
Gayle did not say anything at the small drive from the small Bernita Tarrant rambler to 1148 Cabrini Street.
Gayle did not say anything at the small front door.
Gayle did not say anything at the small staircase.
I sat at the small kitchen table at the small north window of the kitchen at three-twenty-four with a small Saturday-afternoon cup of weak black coffee from the small Mr. Coffee on the small north counter.
The small white IKEA writing desk, the small white IKEA bookcase, the small grey IKEA office chair, and the small fifteen-inch HP all-in-one desktop computer at the small north-east corner of the small spare bedroom on the second floor were still in place at three-twenty-four on the third Saturday afternoon of October.
The small white paper card on the small east-hall doorway that read “GAYLE’S OFFICE” was still on the door at three-twenty-four.
I walked up the small wood-runner staircase to the small east end of the second-floor hall at three-twenty-eight.
I lifted the small white paper card off the small east-hall doorway at three-twenty-nine.
I dropped the small white paper card into the small kitchen-trash bin at three-thirty-one.
I walked back into the small spare bedroom at three-thirty-two.
The small white IKEA writing desk, the small white IKEA bookcase, the small grey IKEA office chair, and the small fifteen-inch HP all-in-one desktop computer were still in place.
The small chapter community page on the small HP browser was still set to the small Gayle Mae Booker administrator dashboard view.
I closed the small HP browser at three-thirty-four.
I closed the small HP at the small power button at three-thirty-five.
On the first Monday morning of November of last year at five-fifty-eight, I walked into the small east-end spare bedroom on the second floor of 1148 Cabrini Street with a small flat-head Phillips-pattern screwdriver and a small four-pound construction-grade rubber mallet.
I disassembled the small white IKEA writing desk in twenty-eight minutes.
I disassembled the small white IKEA bookcase in fourteen minutes.
I carried the small disassembled IKEA panels down the small wood-runner staircase to the small front-yard driveway in nine trips between six-forty-one and seven-eighteen.
I loaded the panels into the small 1998 Chevrolet Silverado pickup bed at seven-twenty-one.
I drove the panels to the small Goodwill Industries of Central Alabama donation center at the small Center Point branch on Center Point Parkway at seven-fifty-eight.
The small Goodwill donation clerk Pernell Otis Briggs signed a small donation receipt at eight-oh-three for the small forty-three-pound IKEA-panel load.
I drove back to 1148 Cabrini Street at eight-thirty-one.
I carried the small Local 136 Goldring oak shop-bench up the small wood-runner staircase from the small back-yard workbench shed at eight-forty-one in three sections.
The Goldring oak shop-bench was the small forty-eight-inch by twenty-four-inch by thirty-six-inch high oak workbench I had built at the small back-yard workbench shed in the autumn of 1985 with my own hands and a single set of small 1983 Klein-pattern brass-handled hand tools.
I assembled the Goldring oak shop-bench at the small north wall of the small east-end spare bedroom from eight-fifty-eight to nine-thirty-one.
I carried the small Local 136 Goldring oak folding chair up the small wood-runner staircase at nine-thirty-four.
I set the small folding chair beside the small Goldring oak shop-bench at nine-thirty-five.
I lifted the 1983 Klein-pattern brass-handled wire-stripper out of the small home tool drawer at the small back-yard workbench shed at nine-thirty-eight.
I carried the Klein up the small wood-runner staircase to the small east-end spare bedroom at nine-forty-one.
I set the Klein at the small front-left corner of the small Goldring oak shop-bench at nine-forty-two.
The small east-end spare bedroom held, at nine-forty-two on the first Monday morning of November of last year, the small Goldring oak shop-bench at the small north wall, the small Goldring oak folding chair at the small west side of the bench, the 1983 Klein-pattern brass-handled wire-stripper at the small front-left corner of the bench, and a small fourteen-inch by twenty-inch oak sample-board with eighteen pre-marked small twelve-gauge solid-copper wire-strip points at the small east side of the bench.
On the first Tuesday morning of November of last year at six-fifty-eight, the small front-door doorbell at 1148 Cabrini Street rang.
I opened the small front door at six-fifty-nine.
The small front porch held two Local 136 second-year apprentices.
The first apprentice was a twenty-three-year-old African-American woman named Marquita Daye Mensah out of the small east-side Birmingham apprentice cohort of 2023.
Marquita held a small black-canvas Klein-pattern apprentice tool-belt at her right hand.
Marquita’s mother is Sister Camille Washington-Daye, the new chapter community-page administrator since the first Monday of November.
The second apprentice was a twenty-four-year-old white man named Riggins Caldwell Sayers out of the small south-side Birmingham apprentice cohort of 2023.
Riggins held a small black-canvas Klein-pattern apprentice tool-belt at his right hand.
We walked up the small wood-runner staircase to the small east-end mentorship room at seven-oh-two.
I sat at the small Goldring oak folding chair at seven-oh-three.
Marquita sat on the small south side of the small Goldring oak shop-bench.
Riggins sat on the small north side of the small Goldring oak shop-bench.
I lifted the 1983 Klein-pattern brass-handled wire-stripper from the small front-left corner of the bench at seven-oh-four.
I held the Klein in my right hand for fourteen seconds at seven-oh-four.
The Klein weighed seven and one-half ounces.
The Klein was six and three-eighths inches long, three-eighths of an inch wide at the jaw, with a small high-carbon-steel cutting blade at the jaw and a small brass-cast handle scale stamped “KLEIN — MADE IN U.S.A. — 1983.”
The cut-depth-adjustment screw at the pivot was set at a small two-and-one-half-turn tightness — the cut-depth setting I had used on twelve-gauge solid copper wire since the autumn of 1985.
The small leather-wrapped grip on the left handle was at the small Booker-thumb wear pattern at the small mid-point of the grip from forty-two years of use.
The brass-cast handle scale on the right handle held a small Booker-pencil mark in my own hand at the small lower-right corner — “A. R. B. — 6/8/83.”
I rotated the Klein in my right hand at seven-oh-five.
I set the Klein at the small forward-center of the small Goldring oak shop-bench at seven-oh-six.
I lifted a small twelve-gauge solid-copper wire from the small east-side of the small oak sample-board at seven-oh-seven.
I handed the Klein to Marquita at seven-oh-eight.
I said: “Sister Mensah. The cut-depth-adjustment screw is at the pivot. The setting is at two and one-half turns. The setting is for twelve-gauge solid copper. The Klein will hold the cut-depth for the small life of the small tool. The brass on the handle was paid for from my own back pocket in 1983. The Klein has been at the small union-hall locker, at the small back-yard workbench shed, and at the small Birmingham Tool and Supply counter at the small graduation-card register. The Klein is at the small Goldring oak shop-bench at 1148 Cabrini Street on Tuesday mornings from now on.”
Marquita set the Klein at the small front-left corner of the bench at seven-oh-nine.
Marquita lifted the small twelve-gauge solid-copper wire at the small east side of the small oak sample-board at seven-ten.
Marquita opened the Klein at the small jaw at seven-eleven.
Marquita set the Klein at the small first pre-marked strip-point on the wire at seven-twelve.
Marquita stripped the small twelve-gauge solid-copper wire at the small first pre-marked strip-point at seven-thirteen.
I nodded at seven-fourteen.
A small first-class United States Postal Service letter arrived in the small mailbox at the curb of 1148 Cabrini Street at eleven-eleven on the second Tuesday morning of November of last year.
The letter was on a small piece of plain white office-stationery paper postmarked from the small Bernita Tarrant Forest Hill rambler on Trinity Avenue South on the first Monday afternoon of November.
The letter was a small ten-line block in Gayle’s own pen.
Gayle’s letter read: “Alton.
We built this life together.
We can find a way past this if you will look at me.
We had Hollis’s funeral.
We had Pratt-Coke.
We had Tuesday-night supper at the small kitchen table for forty-four years.
We can find a way past this.
Gayle.”
I read the small ten-line block once at the small kitchen table at eleven-fourteen.
The small letter held the small word “We” at seven points across the small ten-line block.
The chapter community-fund was not “this life.”
The fourteen thousand four hundred dollars was an unapproved transfer.
I carried the small letter from the small kitchen table to the small east-end mentorship room at eleven-eighteen.
I opened the small back pocket of the small dark-green dues-book binder at eleven-nineteen.
I filed the small letter at the small back pocket of the binder at eleven-twenty.
I lifted the 1983 Klein-pattern brass-handled wire-stripper from the small front-left corner of the small Goldring oak shop-bench at eleven-twenty-one.
The next Tuesday morning apprentice session was scheduled for seven o’clock on the third Tuesday of November.
I sat at the small Goldring oak folding chair at eleven-twenty-three.
I held the small Klein at the small front-left corner of the bench at eleven-twenty-three.
The dues book was the dues book.
The breaker was the breaker.
The page was not the wire.
The wire was the wire.
The apprentices were the wire.
Gayle moved her overnight bag back into the small bedroom at the west end of the second-floor hall on the third Saturday afternoon of November.
We sleep on opposite sides of the small king bed.
The chapter community-page is at Camille Washington-Daye’s small administrator dashboard view at the small union hall on Fifteenth Avenue North.
The dues book is at the small north-wall display shelf at the small union-hall front lobby.
The Klein is at the small front-left corner of the small Goldring oak shop-bench in the small east-end mentorship room.
The marriage continues at a small distance.
Tuesday mornings, the apprentices sit at the small Goldring oak shop-bench.
Tuesday mornings, the Klein is at the small front-left corner of the bench.
Tuesday mornings, I hand the Klein to a small second-year apprentice.
Tuesday mornings, the small twelve-gauge solid-copper wire on the small oak sample-board is stripped at the small first pre-marked strip-point.
Tuesday mornings, I nod once at seven-fourteen.
The arrangement is the arrangement.
The dues book is the dues book.
The breaker is the breaker.
The wire is the wire.
The apprentices on the small Goldring oak shop-bench at the small east-end of the second-floor hall at 1148 Cabrini Street are the wire.
The wire holds the load.
The wire holds.
