Pat Needham, former Buffalo grain scooper and grain ship engineer from Alabama Street

“When we were kids we’d go to Concrete Central – just fields over there, old railroad tracks. And we'd hang out."

Some of Buffalo’s grain elevators had already shuttered by the time Pat Needham was a kid, but he worked hauling and scooping grain for decades in Buffalo and around the Great Lakes. A tragic accident down in the hold of a grain ship put an end to his working life. Pat didn’t have to tell us what it was like getting pulled out from a ship hold without being able to feel his legs, but he did. Needham was interviewed in early 2020 by Kate Kaye.

NOTE: This story involves graphic injury descriptions, as well as descriptions of scooping gangs and scooping work and equipment.