Masonry Magazine June 1974 Page. 25
Portland Area Graduates Apprentices
Sparkler-topped cakes paraded about the banquet room added to the festivities of the 50th annual graduation ceremony for Portland area trade apprentices and trainees. The event, sponsored by the Oregon Building Congress and the Apprenticeship and Training Committees, was held May 21 in the Portland Sheraton Hotel. This year's celebration marked the first one held outside of a school auditorium and was more elaborately planned as a socially entertaining evening, complete with a banquet, live music and dancing.
Some 700 persons, including graduating apprentices, employers, friends and representatives from more than 40 specialized trades, were on hand for the celebration.
Ray F. Wimer, MCAA Northwest field representative and executive director of the Oregon Masonry Guild, and Roy C. Hill, general representative of the Painters International Union, were masters of ceremonies. Also on the program was Robert G. Knudson, vice president of the Oregon Building Congress, and representatives from the United States and Oregon Bureaus of Labor.
Prizes including watches, clock-radios, a barbecue and tape-deck were presented throughout the evening to the graduating apprentices. The prizes, valued at $1,500, were donated by the Oregon Building Congress, Columbia Pacific Building Construction & Trades Council, under the supervision of Earl Kirkland.
The evening's guest speaker, James Bosley, Skywitness Weatherman from KATU-TV in Portland, gave an amusing talk on the perils of being a weatherman, quoting from the numerous letters he receives from viewers. He did, however, leave the Oregonians with one tip on forecasting weather: "If the sky is clear and you're able to see Mount Hood in the distance, then tomorrow's forecast is rain. If the sky is cloudy, it's raining now!"
One of the most entertaining segments of the program consisted of interviews with various apprentices in the audience discussing their vocations and plans for the future. The feelings of many were summed up when one of the graduating bricklayer apprentices, George Milne, said, "If I could do it all over again, I would be an apprentice weatherman. How else could you get paid so well for making so many mistakes every day of the month?"
Graduating apprentices were invited to meet with the Apprenticeship Committee on arrangements and expressed several suggestions as to how the program should be handled. Each craft was represented with a graduate selected by his coordinator.
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June, 1974
25