Allow me to post a couple pre-requisites. I do this because I am not wanting to be drawn into a silly verbal arguement with anyone. Number ONE; Respect in treatment of one another, verbally. Number TWO; Be eager to really learn something, show humility.
I am sure I could list a few more, but that would be redundant. Because you have already blown the first two! I am not speaking ctritically, now, but only the Truth. Call me thin-skinned, call yourself mis-understood. However we call it, let me tell you I feel slightly disrespected. Because of the way your questiion was formed, I made the determination that I have not yet met anyone here that I care to share a secret with. Okay? No hurt 'little feelers' so far, I hope!
To make a long story short, and brief, listen close. I have had the mis-fortune of working for a man who welched on my pay twice in my career. Spanning over twenty years, and in that time I have worked in-house one time. Contract work for the total of the remainder. Now, that is not too bad, right? Do you think I got 'lucky?' , I doubt it. Especially, when you have a personality like mine and others either love me, or they hate me. I am not complaining, I understand why. Others need to understand this ain't Bible Camp- I did not come here to make friends. My friends are at home. I am here to make money!!!
I have a secret. I get paid. Whitfield has been in the business long enough to understand what it is, and he has probably made out very well since discovering the secret as well. The first time I was not paid was my very first cable job. I was fresh out of the oilfield in the Gulf of Mexico. I got paid by the Oil Companies and they never welched. In fact, I usually felt a little guilty for the amount they insisted on paying me...kind'a like the Sweep work I do today. But, the guy that did not pay me got me good, I continued to believe his lies for over two months, and I know that is hard to believe, but it is true, and there are plenty of people still in the business, and on this 'BAR' that can testify to the accuracy of my words. I had been covering the other guys checks the best I could from money I had, in order that we could all continue to stick together. Finally, another Contractor, from New York, came to our hotel room and showed us proof that our 'boss' had been receiving checks and he had been keeping them. I could not believe anyone in the whole UNITED STATES would ever be so mean! Steal our money?!?!? After the loyalty, the hard work, and injuries...all that for nothing? Well, we did not tell him we knew what was up and we waited for him to come to the job to visit all of us, like a big wheel. He would keep us trashed and throw money around, making promises. Well this time when he was getting ready to leave, a couple of us approached him. We told him we knew. We told him the rest of the crews did not know, and we want to keep it that way because they would have hung him on the spot...we hung one guy from the second story balcony, already, and I wanted no more trouble like this. And this guy had real family that would be looking for him, anyway. (the first guy was cut down by guests in the hotel room in front of where he got hung, and he was saved. In case anyone is thinking of turning me in, GEEEZZZZ!) So I told SpongeBob, (that is what we will call him, it fits, don't you think? SpongeBOB!) I told SpongeBob that I would be taking him to the bus station to get him a ride home. I told him he was not allowed to take any of his personal property with him. We would mail it to him as soon as we had earned all the money he owed us. We kept his clothes, we kept his trucks, we kept his tools, and we kept his false teeth, (in about four or five months we sent his false teeth to him, we could not stand to hear his wife and kids crying and begging for Daddy's teeth!) I don't really remember if he resisted or not when we told him how this would be worked out. I remember getting him to the Greyhound bus stop in Beaumont Texas, and I think he was happy to be on the bus heading for home. I made a vow; I will do whatever it takes to protect myself from this happening, again. Since then, only one little cheesed*ck has skinned me for my money...but he and I have not been to the Greyhound station, yet. I know he will be happy to have this resolved, just like SpongeBOB was.
In this time I have devised several fool-proof ways of being sure I get my money. A few times my money was seperated first...before the Contractor, or Sub that I am working for got theirs. Before the Customer sent payroll to the Contractor, mine was subtracted. I got mine the same day the Contractor got his....I LOVE IT!!! a few of these Customers have asked me at the time to submit informal bid proposals, because they did not really like dealing with theives, either. That is another story and time.
Alot of times, I empathize with the condition of things in the industry and I want to help, I want to offer secrets, but I remember this, too. This is Natural Law in effect. This is Natural Selection taking place. And now I am part of it. People working for me are taught how to be sure they get paid, some people I like because they are respectful, and humble with a desire to work and be their best at it, some of these I help, too.
The way I see people treating each other, today, bums me out. Whitfield put a post up the other day "Remember when?" Yes, I do. I remember Iced Tea , Lemon-ade in the summer. I remember Hot Cocoa, and Coffee w/Brandy all winter...I will never forget all the women, and them women loving us. Oh, how they loved us! I remember several occasions when we might have four to seven Linesmen on a pole...the SAME pole. Because some little honey was in the house and doing a strip-tease in the window for us, enjoying our humble enthusiasm as much as we loved her modest attempt for our attention!!! It was so F*ckin Great being in this business ten to twenty-five years ago. You know what? The only thing that has changed, the only responsible factor there is...it is the people coming in to the business. Nothing else is different, except the disrespectful assholes coming into the business. Everything in the field is the same. Everything up the pole is the same. Maybe some of us failed because we did not bring these disrespectful ones into this business with the reverence and respect they should understand. It might be our fault, a little. They used to beat us with hardware to teach us. and they would routinely take all of our pay every Friday night when we all had been paid and were getting drunk. The Senior Linesmen would take our money or alcohol to pay for the mistakes we had made through the week. I F*ck'in hated some of those guys. Today, I love them. They taught me to build with NO F*CKING GIGS!!!! Do you know why? Because I F*CKING KNOW HOW! THAT IS WHY!!! Gigs should not be the Customer's problem! That just says some Contractor can not be trusted to monitor, or QC his own.
I know enough to teach each one of you how to be sure you will get paid...every week. Just like I do. But I won't. Because I despise disrespect and I would rather everyone hate me, and I would rather be alone and broke the rest of my life before I ever stomach dis-respectful people. Some of us need to figure out why we have no control over our tongue. I think, Especially some of you who yet have many things to learn. How do you think you will ever learn? When no one likes you, you have slim chances of changing your life. Unless you think you already know enough. Screw it, I don't care. I don't care to speak any longer to any of you concerning this matter. I have said more then I had intended. Whitfield knows what I am talking about. I do not wish to make anyone feel stupid, and I am not being rude or mean...but open your eyes, consider this; Someone may have information that could change my life! I think I may keep my mouth shut long enough to seek it out. I do not have to like someone in order to learn something.
Many people KNOW what I am talking about here, and if anyone is responsible for the disrespectful posts, sounding like a spoiled child...."What the Hell....na na naa" Screw you. It does not hurt to treat others like you would want to be treated yourself, and it could offer many avenues of higher living that you have no idea about. You may not know 'what the hell I am talking about'. I bet you know that I KNOW what the hell I am talking about! NUMBER ONE: Getting Paid!!!!!!! Ha Ha Ho Ho He he,
There is a way to be paid. I am sure you will figure it out, if you stay in the business. But it is not my responsibility to tell you. It is my responsibility to tell the members of the other 'organization' I mentioned. and there, they will learn. They may not like me, either. They do, however, have manners that would become any LInesMen I have known in the past.
I wish the second best to all of you, I am saving the best for someone else, I guess. It is a small world here in Cable. Seems much bigger then it is, really. I think we all will have other opportunities to speak again, in more personal environs. Til' then, take good care.
Later, Petergunn
