Author - Kendall Bush

They eat lunch in the shade of the truck

On bologna and Little Debbie cakes.

As usual the apprentices started to wrestle

When one untied the others lace

The entertainment was welcome on such a scorcher

With two miles of conducter left to change.

But big Jim noticed that not all saw the fun,

and said “Pappy your actin awful strange”.

Pappy looked up, eyes worried and weak

On a weather worn sun burnt face,

He said I got things weighing heavy on my mind

Ian I ain’t much account today.

He said, “Boys, I’m ready to call it quits.

Every morning my back says it’s time.

I’ve done this work over forty years

And I reacon the next forty’s mine.

I had put in my papers three years ago

Then, you know, Liz got sick and died.

I couldn’t leave then and set in a big empty house

all alone without any kind of life.

Katie and the grandkids live down in Knoxville,

And Jackie on the coast being a hot shot,

But I ain’t leaving these hills, Kentucky’s my home,

An empty house and ya’ll is all I got.

Everyone sat silent in respect of the moment

The apprentices stopped with one holding his knee.

Big Jim finally spoke, and said Pappy you remember

Years ago what you told me.

You said if I stick with it, Line work would get in my blood,

Back then I thought you were a fool.

But after twenty six years being out here

I know what you told me is true.

You were there the very first time

I ever stuck a gaff in a pole.

You brought me up through all the steps

Taught me everything a lineman needs to know

The line work you taught me changed my life

It let me buy a house and a piece of ground.

My whole families future comes back to you

Two through college and one college bound..

Me and You seen things nobody’s ever seen

We’ve done things nobody’s ever done

We’ve caravanned to help out at many a storm

 We climbed poles in New Orleans packing guns.

We laughed at some of the funniest things

And when Greg got killed we cried

through the highs and Lows

The ups and downs, Pappy it’s been a heck of a ride.

In Biology class when I was in school

It said that kin folk had the same DNA.

Said it’s always be found their in the blood

And nothing can ever take it away.

DNA might not have anything to do

With how you climb or set a pole.

But we’re kin just the same whether it’s in the blood

Or just a mark that’s been put on our soul.

Now my point to this rambling

Is remember the warning you gave about line-work in your blood.

And now your sitting here whining, bout not having family

about a life that’s empty and no good.

Now according to biology, me and you’s kin

So is Jackie and them boys when they get a clue.

We got line-work pulsing in our veins

Passed on by none other than you.

In books you find knowledge, in the heart you find freedom of everything gracious and good

If your looking for family or a true lineman,

You gotta go look in the blood.

You deserve a break so go on and retire

Your gonna find there’s plenty to do.

Hunt and fish or work in the shop

Coach little league like you used to do.

Now I know you got an eye for that widow woman at church,

Go ahead and ask her to supper.

Take that camper out and see a few sites,

Man, Liz wouldn’t want you to suffer.

We’ll see you at the restaurant, We’ll see you at church

 We’ll always be around one another

And when you see a new line pop up somewhere

You can tell people that it was built by your brothers

Kendall Bush

Kentucky Association of Electric Cooperatives

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