How do you track down an old foreman after 20 years? Trying to find my old cement man in NYC

I tracked down an old foreman of mine about eight years after we last worked togather, so it's not a lost cause. What finally worked was the pension fund. I called the local, told them I wasn't asking about money, just trying to reach a retired guy I used to run with, and the secretary actually knew him because he still came in once a year to sort out his paperwork. Retired tradesmen tend to orbit the same few places, the hall, the supply yard where they still know everyone, the diner near the old yard. That's where you find them.

I had a grumpy old screeder I worked under for three winters, never knew his legal name either, just what everyone called him on the crew. What finally cracked it for me wasn't the union hall or the pension people, it was the supply yard. The counter guys at the ready-mix dispatch office have been there thirty years and they remember every old timer who still comes in to shoot the breeze. I asked around there on a whim and the dispatcher lit up, said he still comes by most Saturdays to drink coffee and complain about how nobody finishes properly anymore. So if there's a batch plant or a supply counter near where the old man used to work, start there. Retired finishers don't stop showing up around concrete, they just stop getting paid for it. One other thought. If you do find him, brace yourself. I tracked mine down through his daughter after the yard gave me a lead, and the visit was strange at first. He acted like no time had passed, then critiqued the way I'd edged my own driveway walk. Same as ever. The reunion doesn't need to be some big sentimental thing either. Ours was standing in his garage talking about the same two or three jobs we always talked about, and it was enough.

Not sure the pension office route works like that anymore. A few years back I tried the same thing for an old hand I wanted to find and the hall flat out refused to say if he was even alive, said it was a privacy thing. OP alredy said the union hall came up empty anyway so that road's been walked. My money's on the other old crew hands instead. Anybody from those 90s pours still around? Somebody from the gang prolly kept in touch with him even after you two drifted apart. That's how I found my old boss, through a guy who worked one summer with us and stayed friendly with him.

That breed ain't gone, they just ain't on big crews anymore. The old hands who could strike off a bay with a straight 2x4 and no laser level mostly went solo doing small driveways and sidewalk work, and they still do. Try the barbershop near whatever yard you poured out of back then. Barbers hear everythign. I found an old tender of mine that way after 15 years, turns out he was cutting grass two blocks from his old apartment the whole time. Also, if Chubby had any kids who got thier card, they'd be in their 50s now and probably still working. A name and a nickname from the 90s is more of a lead than you think.

Agree with the guy who said they went solo, that tracks with what I saw too. My old finisher from a hospital job in the early 2000s ended up doing stoops and garage slabs on his own out in Queens. Found him through his grandson, who posts pour pictures on Facebook. Took me one message asking around a neighborhood group and the kid got back to me in a day. Old guys like that still brag to their family about the work, so the family knows exactly who they are even when the hall doesn't.

Found my old pad-foreman at a wake, of all places. Another guy from the old crew passed a couple years back and half the finishers from the 80s and 90s showed up. If you hear of any funeral or retirement party for somebody from those pours, go. That room had more gray-haired screed hands in it than I'd seen in twenty years. Also worth asking at the church or social club near wherever he lived, old guys stick to a routine and the regulars know when they stopped showing up.