For almost a hundred years, blast furnaces burned in the steel mills of Youngstown, Ohio.

Tens of thousands of men and women gave their lives to the mills, and in return, the

mills gave Youngstown life.

Working there was a right-of-passage, passed down through the generations.

As it was when Gerald Dickie, a third-generation steel worker, showed up for his first day.

Oh, that's terrifying.

Oh, what kind of hell did I get into?

Steam leaking everywhere, dirt dead, filthy, it's in the air.

And then the noise that the further you get in, the louder it gets.

The train is coming there.

You've got to watch the crossing the tracks down to the pits.

The poor steel sparks are flying everywhere.

It's like the worst nightmare.

And I got halfway through and I said, I'm going to get, I'm going to die in this place,

I'm going to get killed.

But Gerald stuck through that day, and thousands more like it, until everyone at the plant knew

him, and he knew everybody.

I could tell how long your guy is going to be here by what he's carrying.

The lunch.

There's the guy with the stainless steel, the old coal miner bucking with the round handles.

That's a 30-year man.

The guy carrying the round paper bag.

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