If you ever pissed, puked off a stick or past out at the bottom of a stick, (Remember seeing all those little white dots?) well you might be a line dawg.
If you ever rode a lasher to the next stick, climbed up lay up’s, slid down the guy with your safety, well you might be a line dawg.
If you could put a cigarette out in the palm of your hand because the creosote had completely numbed any feeling in them well you might be a line dawg.
If you could come down a pole in 3 steps well you might be a line dawg.
If you can pump a hole through a knotted up or green 18” stick with out stopping, well you might be a line dawg.
If you have ever went to kick a pole just to look down and find you had no hooks on, (most of the men I worked with put their hooks on once a day, I can still remember that clacking sound walking through a Mc Donald’s) well you might be a line dawg.
If you just let it fester up until the splinter popped out like a big zit, well you might be a line dawg.
If you could throw an acorn and hit a Green Bean in the top of the head for not wearing his hard hat well you might be a line dawg.
If you have ever bashed out a window or creased the hood of a car with you’re bell wrench while stopping traffic on a rode crossing, well you might be a line dawg.
If you know why placing a piece of bishop tape on the top of the lasher is for, well you might be a line dawg.
Screw Up’s That Require Payment in beer:
Not having the right hardware on you when you frame a pole.
The lasher stopping 10’off the pole. (That’s right, go get it)
Having someone jump a stick on you, or passing up a nose bleeder.
Dropping anything.
Missing a good throw, (Sorry I hit your hand!)
Any form of whining. (You probably won’t make it back to the shop)
Cutting a tail too short.
Not bringing enough “Gum” for everyone.
And one thing concerning payment in beer, this was no joke, at the end of the day you paid in beer, even if you had to sell or pawn something you paid your dues.
These are just a few, one thing that Gary said that was the truth in the day is that if you didn’t cut it, you were gone, there was NO grace period, you humped it all day long, wimps lasted a day if that, you’re Forman was god and if you pissed him off, well your tools got thrown off the truck and you walked, and if you really pissed him off,,, There was no HR Dept, just a bunch of men out there getting it done, you worked hard and you played hard, can’t count the times we watched the sun come up just to get out there and do it all over again. I’ve seen some men do some amazing things through the years, with the trees, power violations, broken sticks, hornets nests, poison Ivy Poison oak, chiggers those GD trailer park riser poles, but it was all in a days work, this was back when there was a company party, management stayed away, most of these men were brought up in a true working class, farmers, miners, woodsmen, steel workers and they had pride in everything they did with Zero tolerance concerning babies, the stay rate was 2 out of 10, these men built America, we went into towns and built them, all of them, with no concern of personal safety or excuses why it couldn’t be done, these guys worked their way around adversity on a daily basis and GOT R DONE. The rest of you guys just jumped on for the ride.
