The Adventure of the "Special" Oil Refinery Product

I just think it was the night - shift dormitory. A place to hide, warm , cosy comfortable and quiet.

Obviously a popular article!!! One item of mention is that these tanks had a floating lid, so "inside" was really "open to the sky".
As far as the term "girls" (or "boys" for that matter) is concerned, anyone who is offended by that did not grow up around people who were born before 1920. Imagine my chagrine at having my grandmother refer to one of my young pals as my "boyfriend". Vernacular changes folks!!!

In Cincinnati at GE Aircraft Engines there is a tale of a similar story of a brothel in a room you reach going under ground from building 600 to 700 the story goes.

Funny story, but suspicious. A warm, sunny day in Texas would turn a steel oil storage tank into an oven, not exactly the kind of place one would want to set up a brothel, or any other activity. The only way to make something like that work would be to have a ventilation and air conditioning system installed, and that would have been obvious even to a Junior Engineer, well before opening the hatch and peering inside.

Hey Kate, old stories like this only teach you how things were in the past, free of the assault on the freedom of speech that the PC "movement" is. Jump off the PC bandwagon and grow a thicker skin... "girl".

I heard that it's not unusual for "shelters" in automotive plants for snoozing. This info. goes back into the 1980's and includes American plants in Europe at that time.
Regards . . .
Skokian

This story had my BS meter pegging so hard it bent the needle. The whole story is so outlandish that it has "urban legend" written all over it. I can't believe any readers are taking it seriously. I can't believe it actually got published.

I heard a similar (sort of) story that happened at a Nissan plant in Tennessee. The difference is that the setup was across the street in a storage rental facility, and the people involved were "busted" for being off plant grounds while being paid for working.
As for the story about the brothel in the tank, since it is hard to clean a tank, it was undoubtedly one that had not been used yet. Refinerys would build a set of tanks and then start using them as they were needed, when they had all in use it was time to build more. An efficient way to do it if you don't need to borrow money for capital expense items.

"relax and enjoy the ride" Where have I heard that before?

Have any of you folks ever been in a storage tank? First it's dangerous as hell! In order for one to be put to such use it would pretty much have to have been purpose built, and never used for storage of anything other than maybe water. I find the whole story pretty questionable. There are plenty of ordinary buildings in the average refinery that would have been much more suitable.

Dear Kate,
Those of us who are not afraid to "dirty our hands" with real work, and experiences, would very much appreciate you refraining from the negative comments regarding something you've clearly misunderstood the intent of.
Asking if the "girls" were 7 years old is insulting, asinine, and without merit.
There are some very interesting stories to be hand in many walks of life, including engineering, which reflect the REALITY of the human condition & behaviour, as opposed to the MYTHS propagated by the 'politically correct.'
Life is much more enjoyable when you relax and enjoy the ride.

So did the girls fill out a confinded space permit?
Oh wait...thre was to OSHA back then.

Wow. I recall stories my grandfather told me from working during the 40's and 50's. The women were all "girls" or "gals". A "lady" was someone who accepted money for "favors". I'm sure if he heard the way people speak now he would be amazed. It's a different generation and I'm sure if something like that happened now there would be lawsuites filed faster than one could blink, and a government "investigation" into how that could happen.

Kate, it's not the STORY that denigrates women, but the BEAHVIOR of the WOMEN.

In this case the "girl(s)" would be much safer and comfortable in the oil tank than girl(s)in rowboats servicing offshore oil platforms.

Ms. Kate, I politely disagree. So called "Old Boy Stories" when based in fact, are interesting in the same way any human interest story is interesting. They are stories of the human condition. Productive people look to better our human condition based on a view of the past. Without the stories from our past we are destined as individuals and as society as a whole to miss these lessons and suffer through them again.
Is this story humorous? For me, at least, it is. Is it interesting? Certainly. Are there lessons to be learned? I think so. Does it do any good to deny the past? Certainly not. Will it provoke a knee jerk reaction from some? Apparently.

The Old Boys Stories are extremely boring. The first hint that this piece would denigrate women was "The girls were quite efficient". Were the "girls" 7 years old? Grow up, Charles.