Took a short trip down memory lane last evening. ?ÿStopped to look at the apartment building that I moved into when I left home ten days after high school graduation. ?ÿIt is a two-story box-shaped frame structure probably built in the early 1900's. ?ÿThe paint has changed and some new-looking pillars now support the wide second floor porch across the front. ?ÿThe lower floor is split into two apartments running the full depth of the house. ?ÿA central set of stairs led to a matching pair of apartments on the second floor. ?ÿMine was the west one on the second floor. ?ÿA bathroom (with tub), kitchen, living room and one bedroom plus half of the big front porch. ?ÿ$27.50 every two weeks. ?ÿI was earning $2.12 per hour working a 38-hour week as a professional ?ÿturkey hanger for Swift & Co with no job benefits. ?ÿHardly knew how to spend the remainder of the weekly paycheck.
The elementary school that filled the entire block to the north now serves as a church. ?ÿThe local grocery store building one block to the east is still nestled between late-1800's houses but is merely a storage building now. ?ÿIn the Spring of 2000 a tornado tore through the city but missed this area by about one block.
Moved out, with my bride of less than one month, on August 22 to head half way across the state to attend college.
It was a simpler time back then; now most states require a four-year degree before you can sit for the Professional Turkey Hanger Exam. ?ÿ
It's not called Turkey Hanger anymore...the accepted term is Turkeyomatics Engineer.
Sort of like geomatician or spatial manipulator, eh?
It's not called Turkey Hanger anymore...the accepted term is Turkeyomatics Engineer.
Plus you have to attend professional development classes for continuing in that occupation. Where you are enlightened in all manner of things probably, mostly, not related to turkeys and all that job entails.?ÿ
It's not called Turkey Hanger anymore...the accepted term is Turkeyomatics Engineer.
Plus you have to attend professional development classes for continuing in that occupation. Where you are enlightened in all manner of things probably, mostly, not related to turkeys and all that job entails.?ÿ
I think you mean all that job entrails
When I moved into that apartment I had no vehicle so walked what I now know is 1.25 miles one-way to hang those turkeys, rain or shine. ?ÿOne morning I saw an older fellow crawling around on his house roof with a tape measure. ?ÿI stopped to ask if he was planning to reroof the house and if he needed some help as I had quite a bit of experience with that kind of work. ?ÿHe knew next to nothing so hired me on the spot. ?ÿTraded that labor and a couple hundred dollars to buy a Chevelle station wagon he no longer needed. ?ÿOne of the best deals I ever made. ?ÿNot bad for a 17 year-old kid.
A couple generations pass and now a story like yours would be used as an example of all the "problems" inherent in the system. A vulnerable teenager...living alone...no car...has to walk to his dangerous job...in a slaughterhouse. To make ends meet, he takes on the even more dangerous work of roofing...without proper safety equipment or oversight. Also without knowing the dangers, he marries too young...
Worst of all, I bet you didn't even know how oppressed you were.
?ÿ
Sure didn't. ?ÿWouldn't go back and change ?ÿone thing about that Summer.
It's always a stark contrast for me when my memories meet reality.?ÿ Not really a bad thing, it's just always a shock when I see the world has aged just like I have.?ÿ The sweetest places in my memory are places that no longer exist.?ÿ They are free of the?ÿravages of time and man because they exist only in my memory.
I was out watering my tomato plants the other evening after the sun had gone down.?ÿ A?ÿwarm south night breeze carried the sound of crickets to my ear.?ÿ When I bent over and smelled the tomato plants the memory was complete.?ÿ
I was in the garden we kept when I was a tadpole.?ÿ The property dropped toward the back fence and it was always cooler back there.?ÿ We burned our trash back there in a steel drum.?ÿ My brothers and I had a well worn path down to the "back".?ÿAnd a?ÿhole in the fence that took us boys to all our favorite destinations was back there too.?ÿ It was a wonderful spot to lay in the grass and stare at the stars.?ÿ The breeze could almost make you forget air-conditioning hadn't yet made it that far down our dusty road.?ÿ?ÿ Just smelling the tomato plants and hearing crickets the other evening brought all that back to me.?ÿ
The garden's long gone.?ÿ I sold the place after Momma passed in '09. The?ÿBratcher's horse pasture that backed up to our place was cut up into a subdivision years ago.?ÿ But that place is still there in my mind.?ÿ And I went there the other evening just to smell the tomato plants.
@paden-cash?ÿ You sir are a wordsmith and storyteller extraordinaire.?ÿ
It was a simpler time back then; now most states require a four-year degree before you can sit for the Professional Turkey Hanger Exam. ?ÿ
I can't figure out how some of these people with a college degree made it through high school much less, college.
It was a simpler time back then; now most states require a four-year degree before you can sit for the Professional Turkey Hanger Exam. ?ÿ
Oklahoma will still allow an applicant to apply for examination with no degree but through "long established practice" and verifiable long term experience supervising turkey hanging?ÿprojects.
When I was a teenager I had a boss tell me to take a 12" limb off a giant oak tree so the semi with water tank on it could get by on the dirt hillside road.
Yes sir I said fat, dumb, and happy.
I set an extension ladder up against the limb (at least I was smart enough to cut on the side away from the tree) and BUZZZZZZZ when that limb went down it hit the ground with a giant THUD!. I was lucky it didn't roll and take out my ladder which was set on the downhill side.
Just the other day I watched a laborer standing in the bucket of a skid steer limbing a tree by one handing the chainsaw up over his head and his buddy on the ground stood right underneath him.?ÿ Wow, those guys were not exactly safety first.?ÿ They were trimming limbs from my trees on the vacant lot side working for their Ukrainian boss.?ÿ Wife says hope he doesn't fall on our side of the fence.?ÿ I said I didn't hire those idiots.
We hired a professional tree service to do some trimming but those guys were pros and cheaper than the idiots, believe it or not.
