‘Hardhat Days’ from WSU Press Recently Featured in Seattle-Area Media

Hardhat Days: My Re-Education in Seattle’s Shipyards, published by WSU Press’s general interest imprint Basalt Books, has been recently featured in two Seattle-area media outlets, adding to the buzz over Mike Nolan’s memoir of a broke and desperate college graduate who joined the gritty, dangerous—yet still often humorous—world of Seattle shipyard labor.

On Nov. 10, Seattle Met magazine ran an excerpt written by Nolan titled “My Life in the Shipyards.” In it, he describes his relocating to Seattle in the late 1970s after earning his bachelor’s degree in biology. He quickly learned that a degree didn’t make him a shoo-in for a waiting job, especially in a bustling city he didn’t know how to navigate in.

A month after fruitless job hunting, Nolan found himself lining up for a laborer’s position at the Ship Scalers Union, a predominantly Black workers’ organization with a storied history of advocacy for social justice, integration, and civil rights in Seattle since the 1940s. Walking to his first worksite, Nolan took in his first impressions of a shipyard:

“Throughout the yard, workers moved in every direction, carrying tools, dragging hoses, lugging equipment…with forklifts driving in between them all. I paused for a second and looked around, pressed in by the noise and frenzied activity all around me. Everything was in motion. It was loud and hurried and seemed erratic, but at the same time the movement possessed an energetic rhythm and geometry: perfectly organized chaos. I loved being in the center of it all.”

KING5-TV’s “New Day Northwest” featured Nolan in a video segment on Nov. 18, where he discussed his book and how the Seattle shipyards taught him about hard work and humility. Hardhat Days, Nolan said, touches on issues still as relevant today as 50 years ago: the good and bad aspects of unions; the American dream and whether it’s as accessible now versus then; race relations; and the applicability of a college degree. His memoir also pays tribute to the people he met, such as his best friend in the shipyards, Chris Wells, who died in a tragic accident there.

Asked what a takeaway might be for readers, Nolan said, “Here you are getting tested, and you have to [go through this] trial by fire, and you learn a little bit about yourself, who you are, what you can do…I’m hoping they’ll say ‘Yeah, I remember that feeling,’ just when you’re scrapping and trying to assert yourself, but you’re not so sure about yourself, those feelings of coming into your own. I hope they can relate to that.”