PS The following summer, in June and July 1964, I worked for another friend's father, a big DC contractor. My job was to carry bricks, about 8 or 10 in each set of tongs, from the pile where they'd been offloaded from a big truck over to the site of a future apartment complex where skilled masons were laying them one by one into mortar to build a wall. I do remember a few things from that turning point in my life.
1) One of the masons ate a raw onion and a can of anchovies for lunch every day.
2) It was blazing hot. Every day.
3) I wore out more than one pair of leather gloves.
4) The foreman was African American.
5) One day a new mason showed up for work, but turned around and left before unpacking his tools. "I'll work with 'em, but not for one," he said quietly.
6) One Monday morning I drove out to the site in Laurel, MD, only to discover that no one else had reported for work. I learned later that the checks distributed by the subcontractor he previous Friday had bounced. I was the only member of the crew who had not needed the money to buy groceries. No one else was willing to work for no pay.
7) I decided I'd be wise to recommit myself to my studies when high school classes began again in September.
I must have been a little older, because I drove to work in the cold and dark each morning; but one of my first jobs had some similar characteristics. It was in giant industrial building in a tough part of town (SE Washington, DC), it was a food business (wholesale groceries), and it was family-adjacent as my kids say (owned by my h.s. girlfriend's father). But my memories are nowhere near as clear as yours, and my ability to describe them if they were, nowhere near as eloquent! As far as I remember, no pallets of canned tomatoes fell off the forklift that Christmas vacation.
Definitely a favorite story - and I like the new discussion questions at the end
PS The following summer, in June and July 1964, I worked for another friend's father, a big DC contractor. My job was to carry bricks, about 8 or 10 in each set of tongs, from the pile where they'd been offloaded from a big truck over to the site of a future apartment complex where skilled masons were laying them one by one into mortar to build a wall. I do remember a few things from that turning point in my life.
1) One of the masons ate a raw onion and a can of anchovies for lunch every day.
2) It was blazing hot. Every day.
3) I wore out more than one pair of leather gloves.
4) The foreman was African American.
5) One day a new mason showed up for work, but turned around and left before unpacking his tools. "I'll work with 'em, but not for one," he said quietly.
6) One Monday morning I drove out to the site in Laurel, MD, only to discover that no one else had reported for work. I learned later that the checks distributed by the subcontractor he previous Friday had bounced. I was the only member of the crew who had not needed the money to buy groceries. No one else was willing to work for no pay.
7) I decided I'd be wise to recommit myself to my studies when high school classes began again in September.
I must have been a little older, because I drove to work in the cold and dark each morning; but one of my first jobs had some similar characteristics. It was in giant industrial building in a tough part of town (SE Washington, DC), it was a food business (wholesale groceries), and it was family-adjacent as my kids say (owned by my h.s. girlfriend's father). But my memories are nowhere near as clear as yours, and my ability to describe them if they were, nowhere near as eloquent! As far as I remember, no pallets of canned tomatoes fell off the forklift that Christmas vacation.
wonderful.
for some reason, i keep seeing elon at the bottom of that chute.................. covered in batter; his best day ever!
It would be Obama’s fault
Yep...
Fabulous, wonderful, magnificent story. Thanks for cheering us up!!!!
I have always loved this story. I laugh each time that I hear it told. With your talent in writing about it, it is even better!🤣
Always one of my, and my family's, favorites .