Catch That Apprentice!

[torren61]

I miss Charlie Hill. Charlie Hill was a lineman when I was an apprentice back in Memphis in 1987. We both worked for Dillard Smith.

Charlie was about sixty years old. He was over weight, balding and he talked a bit strangely. He had a large red nose from drinking too much and he lived in a camper mounted on the back of a pickup truck and parked at the yard with an extension cord ran from the office to his rig. (No water. Charlie smelled a bit.)

Rumor was, years before, Charlie had been drinking and driving and got into a car crash with his wife and son in the car and his wife and son had died. It was hard to tell if he was really all there.

Charlie loved to "cut cards". Cutting cards is where you shuffle a deck of cards and you cut the deck and show the card where it was cut. High card wins. My brother and I would team up cutting cards against Charlie (I know, that wasn't fair.) but Charlie had the luck of the angels. He'd win way more times than he'd lose. He'd cut cards for any amount. $100 didn't bother him a bit. He once showed us eight uncashed paychecks he had stashed in his wallet.

Charlie was a tough old f#rt. A groundman was working with him. Charlie was on the pole making sure the ground connection was good. The groundman had megged out the ground wire and had sleeved it and had just covered the hole at the bottom of the pole. He tamped the dirt twice with the back of the shovel, said "Okay Charlie... hit the ground!", turned, took two steps and heard a thump. Charlie had cut out from about twenty feet and hit the ground all right... "That hurt Bubba." But he was okay. Luck of the angels.

Charlie was on a pole and had climbed above the two crossarms that were bolted together as a bandaid for the break at the pole. He cut out, turned sideways and landed on the top of the crossarm on his side. He got his hooks back in and said "That hurt Bubba."

We were pulling the bottom of a pole that had been cut about eight feet from the ground. For some reason, Charlie had ahold of the pole while we were pulling it. Back in those days, we used a steel cable for a winch line. There was a pretty good strain when the pole popped out of the hole flinging Charlie about ten feet on his butt. "That hurt Bubba."

He always got hurt but he was always okay in end.

One day, we had cut a pole into pieces and we had to put a fifteen foot section on the pole trailer. There were four of us so we hoisted the piece on our shoulders. I was the third in line. The two men in front of me had the pole on their right shoulder. I had the pole on my left shoulder and Charlie Hill was behind me and had the pole on his right shoulder. We moved towards our right to the pole trailer. The plan should have been, we get there and everyone gets ready. One, two, three... toss the pole. But when we got to the trailer, Charlie pushed the pole from his shoulder. The two men in front of me felt the pole going and they, too, pushed the pole from their shoulders. I had no time.

The pole piece caught me by the back of the head and slammed my head into the trailer splitting my skin above the left eye. I was stunned and for a few seconds, I didn't know where I was so I started running in circles (lol). Charlie, with his speech impediment, says... "What's wong with that appwentice? Catch him! Catch him!"

I got six stitches and finished the day when I got back from the ER.

We all moved on as you do in line work and I didn't see Charlie again after that. I later heard that he fell out of a bucket and died because he wasn't wearing any fall restraint. Back in those days, the most you did wear was a belt that had a ring in the back and a rope with a single snap ring at each end. That was if you wore anything at all for fall restraint.

R.I.P. Charlie Hill.

[Old Line Dog]

Sounds like Charlie was a Heck of a guy, and a **** good Lineman..."back in the day".

I hope you follow his "general Mindset', but....apply a bit more of the safety rules that are in place today.

R.I.P. Charlie Hill.

[reppy007]

Good story,I also remember the days with the belts,before the lanyards.

[US & CA Tramp]

I knew Charlies brother out in Washington state, his name was Ed Wright. The only difference is we didn't have bucket trucks at the utility in 1972!!