I remember as a young kid going with friends to forbidden places in the summer.  We would hang out in the cemeteries in the area, and then end up going to the Newtown Creek to explore and toss rocks and whatever into the foul smelling water.  I remember well the foul smell from the late forties, early fifties and then again when I took a job in the copper refinery.  The rats there grew huge, maybe nourished by drinking and eating from this chemical creek.  We kids threw rocks at them.

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          Years later I took a job by that creek under the bridge at Phelps Dodge.  I won’t detail the chores or how dangerous the work was, but at that time, I was more interested in the fact that it paid well due to hazardous conditions.  One morning, a chain broke on an overhead carrier filled with hot copper causing an explosion.  Three workers in front of the furnace died.  That was enough for me.  I said farewell to this job and so ended the putrid stench of Newtown creek from under the Kosciuszko Bridge for me for good.