Stanley H. Saloy Sr., 79, is a rascal. You can tell by the glint in his eye, the laugh that slides into a snicker and the general good time he has as he talks about his historic tenure as a mason in King County.
When he unabashedly talks about the racial tensions in his early days with brick and mortar, you learn a lot.
When the executive director of the Washington State Conference of Mason Contractors, Louis Rowley, stepped down in 2001, he wrote a goodbye column and thanked, among others, retired mason and Mount Baker resident Saloy for "his best thoughts on my worst days."
As the first black member of Washington's masonry union to earn a gold card for 50 years of service, who can guess how many people Saloy influenced in his history-making tenure?
A conversation set up by Eric, the youngest of his six children, added context to Saloy's story.
"He's a pioneer," Eric said in the din of the Starbucks at 23rd Avenue South and South Jackson Street. His father, a small, wiry man, protests. "I don't feel as if I'm a pioneer. I'm not the only 50-year pin carrier," he said.
Saloy said he sees himself as a mentor to those new to the trade.
"I can influence them and coach them, tell them what to do, how to survive it," he said.
Saloy served three years in the Navy. He was stationed in Spokane when he met his wife, Melrene, who died in 1973. He shipped off to Japan to complete his service, and then headed to New Orleans to work with his uncle, a mason contractor.
His uncle trained him as a hod carrier, a crewmember who keeps the bricklayer supplied with the tools of the trade. He quickly trained Saloy to lay bricks so Saloy could get into the union. Saloy said that those in power at the time didn't welcome bricklayers who had not completed the apprenticeship program. With Saloy's on-the-job training, his uncle decided to go around the policy and got Saloy into the union. He was a foreman in two years.
"He made me a foreman more or less for spite," Saloy laughed.
Eventually Saloy, his wife and two children returned to Spokane. His wife adjusted to the South, but it was difficult for her.
"She'd never experienced nothing like that, born and raised in the North and going to a mixed school," he said. "Then come back to the South and kids going to a segregated school."
She was not well, so Saloy brought her back to her family in Spokane.
The family then headed to Seattle because there was not much work in Spokane. The work in Seattle was plentiful but not easy. The union sent members, several times a week, to hassle Saloy over his membership. Saloy said not many blacks were in the union and the union leaders did not like that Saloy had built a reputation for fine work.
"I was in demand," he said.
Saloy started in Seattle as a bricklayer but soon started the "lay-out" or prep work for the other bricklayers. His boss saw Saloy's potential, promoted him to foreman and kept him around for 12 years.
Saloy started his own business in 1972.
"It was a tough go-highly competitive," Saloy said. Banks were hesitant to provide loans, but he found a banker at the Rainier Beach branch of a local bank. The banker reviewed Saloy's contracts for work, gave him loans at 80 percent value of the contract and noted the loan on a card.
"I had almost like a deck of cards stacked up there with loans. I was paying them," Saloy said. But Saloy said his banker was fired for making that type of loan. "They told him he had to send me up to the main office to get this type of treatment. Local branches weren't allowed to do that," he said.
His business did well. Eventually Saloy Masonry was self-sufficient and didn't need bank loans. At this time, Saloy decided to "join the club with the big boys"-the union.
Saloy then experienced what he calls "that minority thing"-when affirmative action developed. The union leaders realized the union was non-compliant by affirmative action rules, so Saloy said they asked him to "get us some minorities."
He snickered as he talked about the limited alternatives the union had for recruiters. The next few years, the trendsetter worked with Garfield High School students to show the youngsters the inner workings of masonry and the advantages of a trade when college was not an option.
Saloy told the kids to "go down to the union and tell them you're my nephew." He said his name kept applications active and kids in the loop.
In 1985, Saloy ended a joint venture he'd had with Lund Masonry. Before he left, the joint businesses built the addition to the Bellevue Nordstrom, stands at the University of Washington football stadium and the youth detention center on 12th Avenue. Saloy's own crew put up much of the stonework at Promenade 23, the retail center at 23rd Avenue South and South Jackson Street.
Because no family member was ready to take over the business, Saloy Masonry ended with his retirement in 1995. In 2000, he set a milestone.
"I was the first black to get a gold card and lifetime membership out of the union," he said. "First and only."
There is no black mason even close to that historic number. When asked if the union ever asked him to share his story with other members, Saloy laughed.
"They don't like to hear my story, because my stories are too hectic," he said. "It gets ugly, you know."
His shenanigans continued when he answered a question about what makes a good bricklayer.
"A strong back and a weak mind," he said.
His serious answer-which came seconds later-was loaded with technical terms. A person gets the idea of just how much this man knows about the masonry business.
"You got brick, you got blocks, you got rubble stone, you got cut stone. When you can do all that...you good!"
He took a breath and added "slate" and "concrete masonry unit," or CMU, to the list of mason lingo.
And members did hear his story in mid-December at the Masonry Institute of Washington's recognition dinner. A regularly scheduled event, this dinner was dedicated solely to Saloy's history-making turn with a trowel.
"It was more like a roast," his son Eric chuckled.
These days Saloy eats right and stays healthy, but ever the rascal, he cannot resist a few words about the recent Mariah Carey concert. He went with his grandson and friends and declared that Carey could not dance.
"You know what? She surprised me. She's nasty," he said with emphasis, and with one more snicker and a twinkle in his eye.
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