For 167 years at the Chicago Board of Trade Building, you could find traders in the Chicago Mercantile Exchange’s Futures Pits jockeying for position and shouting orders for wheat, cattle, and corn.

But on July 6, 2015, that way of doing business came to an end when the Futures Pits closed for good.

Many young men from nearby working-class neighborhoods found their way into the financial industry at the Board of Trade.

Tom Howard (left) and Bill O’Hara (right) both worked as traders there, and recently came to StoryCorps to remember how they got started.

Originally aired July 6, 2015, on NPR’s Morning Edition.