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SERVE A Journal of Free Voices August 22, 1980 750 / :42.1.1t1 aoti Living Through the Rape Culture . . . Re-grouping on the Left . . . Building the GOP in Bryan . . . Attacking the LSC in Washington . . . Creosote Blues By Paul,Sweeney Somerville In 1967, when he was 17, Ronnie Baade got a job at the Sante Fe railroad tie-treating plant where his father had worked most of his adult life. The pay was good, perhaps the best around. But after a year on the job, Ronnie began to wonder what kind of career he would have. During lunch break one day in October 1968, Ronnie paused to look around the big, busy plant. “I saw my daddy hobbling around, crippled from the days when he had to pack 150-1b. ties by hand. He had a lame leg and a bad back. I saw him and some of those other men and thought, ‘If that’s what you’ve got to go through, I can make it somewhere else.’ ” Ronnie Baade walked off the job. It might’ve been the healthiest thing he ever did. In 1970, Ronnie’s father, Alvin Baade, died of leukemia. He was 64 and would have retired from the company in 10 months with more than 40 years’ service.