Searcy(LP) Everyone knows someone who can talk a lot. James West, Searcy citizen, has a lot of great stories to tell. James West has lived in Searcy for sixty five years. He moved from his home in California and performed many jobs such as welling, building several bridges in Little Rock, installing machinery, and contracting. West worked for the largest contractor in Arkansas. He normally worked in the Northern part of the United  States in twenty seven and below degrees weather. West is a hardworking man with a rough past. His mother died when he was a child, so he left his home to work at an early age. He traveled all around America finding jobs and making friends along the way. When he was eight years old, he began to work on a railroad in Pocahontas, Arkansas. Back in the nineteen hundreds, child labor was not illegal. James West didn’t mind working this early in his life, he was grateful for the money. Living with five or more foster families with a large amount of children, he wasn’t fed enough and was often starving. He ran away to make a living off of child labor. One particular boss that was fond of Mr.West gave him two knives to tie around his neck on a shoelace to use as a weapon. His boss didn’t want anyone to take advantage of the child. There was a lot of illegal crime in these years. Working on many important bridges, such as the Broadway Bridge in Little Rock, which was recently torn down, Mr.West has many interesting experiences. He once said “It was five hundred and one feet high, you get up there and look down, and the people walking below look like puppy dogs. A lot of those high rod buildings in Little Rock, I put the steel on them before they even put the brick or the concrete. I’ve been ninety three stories high. When I first started Haney’s Steel, they didn’t even have safety belts. It came out years later. I saw many people die, because they didn’t have safety equipment. It was twelve feet for every story.”