Waiting in the Unemployment Line :: descriptive essay, observation essay

I am standing in line for unemployment benefits. There must be between four hundred to six hundred others here with me. Everyone here is a locked out Steelworkers from the Kaiser Mead plant. I see many faces I know in the crowd. We are all here because the Washington State Unemployment office downtown cannot handle such a crowd. All the members were told by the Union that this was the day that we had to signup for a new benefit year. Everyone was told to meet at the Carpenter's hall just off Division on Mission. The building is getting old and could use some maintenance. It is a cold dreary damp morning, and I am glad that I brought my coat along. The weather reflects the overall mood of the people in line. There is a lot of talking going on about what it is going to take to requlify for benefits. I think many fear that they will not receive any more checks from Unemployment. This morning I got up early to make sure I could make it on time. The last time they locked the doors on the hour. This is the only day we have to do this, so I did not want to miss out. Without unemployment benefits, I would go under fast. This is true for most of the people in line. I don't think they thought this many of us would have made the mandatory $2,646. If they had used the same method for sign up that they used last October, this whole process would have been easier on everyone. Previously people with last names starting with A-H went at 9:00am, I-P at 11:00am and so on. This kept it from becoming overcrowded like it is today. After about ten minutes someone comes out of the building yelling, "Go home if you have not made at least $2,800 since the benefit year started". The reason for this is because the state requires us to make six times our weekly benefit amount to be eligible for another benefit year. Of course no one let us know this until the benefits ran out in August. This left most steelworkers only a month and a half to make the money.