Mike Nolan with Tricia Matteson — 'Hardhat Days'

Third Place Books welcomes writer Mike Nolan to our Lake Forest Park location for a conversation about his new memoir, — a memoir of reinvention and resilience while working in heavy construction in the shipyards of 1970s Seattle. He will be joined in conversation by his sister, Tricia Matteson.

This event is free and open to the public. For important updates, RSVP is highly recommended in advance. This event will include a public signing and time for audience Q&A. Sustain our author series by purchasing a copy of the featured book!

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This event is free to attend. RSVP is recommended in advance.

Following weeks of fruitless 1970s job-hunting, new college graduate Mike Nolan was broke and miserable, sleeping on his sister’s couch. As a last resort, he signed on as a shipyard laborer, and discovered that the most worthwhile education often happens outside of a classroom. Indeed, when he toppled from the crow’s nest of the USS Roark while trying to impress the foreman, only his rote safety training kept him alive.

Desperate to keep his job after joining a primarily African American Ship Scalers Union No. 541, Mike lied about being a sandblaster. In reality, he knew nothing about the trade and deserved to be fired. Instead, his kind-hearted Black coworkers took the white kid under their wing, and the former honor student from a small, not-so-diverse college became “Brother Nols,” the only white sandblaster on the crew. His mentors included Eddie, on work release from Pr*son, who sympathized with Mike’s situation and showed him the tricks of the trade, and U.S. Olympic rowing coxswain hopeful, Chris, who became his best friend.

Taking pride in his blue-collar life and developing immense respect for his fellow ship scalers, Mike’s entertaining accounts shine a light on the gritty, dangerous, yet still often humorous—world of heavy construction. Along the way, he offers insightful reflections on his growing self-awareness and empathy, ties between work and identity, and finally, his evolving perceptions surrounding race and privilege.

A native Washingtonian, Mike Nolan has worked as a dishwasher, a short order cook, a sandblaster, a school counselor, and a professional clam digger. After a thirty year career as a guidance counselor in the public schools, he graduated and is now working as a writer. Mike lives in the small town of Port Angeles, along the shores of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, where the mountains meet the sea.

His memoir, Hardhat Days, focuses on his work as a sandblaster in the Seattle shipyards during the late seventies. It's a coming-of-age story of reinvention and resilience, published by Washington State University Press. Mike has a web presence at mikenolanstoryteller.com. His work has been published in Flash Fiction Magazine, The Seattle Times, Seattle Met Magazine, AAA Journey Magazine, Travel + Leisure, and The Spokesman-Review.

Tricia Matteson is a life-long avid reader. Belonging to the same book club for over 25 years, she has found that being exposed to diverse genres and writing styles has expanded her literary tastes and made her a more curious reader. That broadened perspective now includes this coming-of-age memoir of a sandblaster in the 1970s. Even before this book was published, Tricia was already a big fan of Mike Nolan’s work. In fact, she has known him her whole life – he’s her big brother! As such, she is intimately familiar with Mike’s written word - from the clever scripts he writes for family gatherings, correspondence they exchanged during college and travels abroad, to his current works of prose. She’s looking forward to introducing you to Mike and his book “Hardhat Days.”

Founded in 1998 in Lake Forest Park, Washington, Third Place Books is dedicated to the creation of a community around books and the ideas inside them. With locations in Lake Forest Park and Seattle's Ravenna and Seward Park neighborhoods, Third Place Books is proud to serve the entire Seattle metro area. Learn more about their event series at thirdplacebooks.com/events.

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