Share your random work memories

[Lou Tencodpees]

Occasionally random work memories will come back to me. One that popped up this morning was when I was servicing a fax machine at a remote train yard in Port Huron, Michigan. These places were always a bit dark and dank, like some place you could imagine dying in a violent way. The railroaders mulling around in their dirty overalls, the smell of grease and cigarettes. One guy looks out the window and says "uh oh, you parked in Bill's spot" in a loud voice. The door flies open and I hear a booming voice yelling "Who's car is that in my parking spot!?! I'm gonna rip your head off and $&!/ down your neck!!" I turn around and see this Bluto looking guy about 7 feet tall rounding the corner and glaring at me along with the rest of his coworkers. I suppose the look on my face drew the desired response, because Bluto and the rest of his accomplices burst into laughter. Funny guys. It apparently was one of their routines, exploiting Bill's ogre-like physique.

I can't remember, but think I must have checked my underwear in the washroom before leaving.

 

[uriah1]

Back in the 70s when I was in USCG doing mostly search and rescue
we had to assist the organized crime unit on a mission.
Well back then we only did SAR and some big boat seizures. The
only gun we had on the base was an old shotgun.
These guys come on our little 41 and we take off with these guys
who broke out these weird looking guns and took them to
a dock in the harbor. The skipper and me looked at each other
as we were almost there and said. Where we going to hide when
or if the bullets fly. We said oh "shi^&=" We decided we could jump
down engine compartment between diesels.
Well we got to site and no one there...whew..
Fun days.

 

[Knows3Chords]

Occasionally random work memories will come back to me. One that popped up this morning was when I was servicing a fax machine at a remote train yard in Port Huron, Michigan. These places were always a bit dark and dank, like some place you could imagine dying in a violent way. The railroaders mulling around in their dirty overalls, the smell of grease and cigarettes. One guy looks out the window and says "uh oh, you parked in Bill's spot" in a loud voice. The door flies open and I hear a booming voice yelling "Who's car is that in my parking spot!?! I'm gonna rip your head off and $&!/ down your neck!!" I turn around and see this Bluto looking guy about 7 feet tall rounding the corner and glaring at me along with the rest of his coworkers. I suppose the look on my face drew the desired response, because Bluto and the rest of his accomplices burst into laughter. Funny guys. It apparently was one of their routines, exploiting Bill's ogre-like physique.

I can't remember, but think I must have checked my underwear in the washroom before leaving.

I worked on the truck and rail road scales at a scrap steel company one summer. It was in Ecorse Mi.. Yes, those places are not for the meek. There were some pretty rough characters there. We had one crane operator who was a biker named Buddha who had done eight years for shooting his wife at one time in his life. He used to like to go out to the far edge of the yard and turn his radio off and then sleep the whole shift away. It was always my job to walk all the way out and throw rocks at the crane cab until he woke up and turned his radio on. I swore each time he was going to kill me. I saw some crazy stuff there, not really things I could post here.

 

[Lou Tencodpees]

Yes, those places are not for the meek.

Yep, I had probably been to all the Grand Trunk/CN Rail places in the Detroit Metro area. Creepy, yet cool in a way. I always had a fascination with trains and this gave me a fly on the wall perspective. Some gritty characters.

 

[Knows3Chords]

Yep, I had probably been to all the Grand Trunk/CN Rail places in the Detroit Metro area. Creepy, yet cool in a way. I always had a fascination with trains and this gave me a fly on the wall perspective. Some gritty characters.

I saw some pretty rough rail car accidents and injuries too. I worked as a rail yard switch man too. Packs of wild dogs every wear. Gangs dumping of cars that they had stole and joy rode all night. Bullets hitting the cranes. We even had cops busting guys for putting stolen car parts from the auto plants into empty rail cars and then trying to pick them up as a they sat outside the yard.

 

[THX1139]

We once did a gig in Boston at a beautiful old hall that was on the second floor. The freight elevator looked like it came on the Mayflower but was large and weight rated for the various pieces of the large amount of PA and monitors we needed to provide at the insistence of the artist (another story for another day).

We loaded our first set of gear and myself and a union stage hand into the elevator and started up. Got up about 5 feet slowly and the elevator just stopped. It would not go up or down as we tried different buttons. I hit on the idea that the load weight was just enough to stop progress, and that if I and the other guy both jumped into the air we might lighten the load just enough to get it moving. We counted to 3, jumped up in the air and the elevator went up 3 or 4 feet. We continued to count and jump and slowly made it up to the second floor and unloaded.

After that we put a fair bit less gear in each load and got everything up in about an extra half hour. Little did I know that that was just a warmup for mayhem that would occur once the show started, but the elevator will always be with me as a reminder of the good times I had running a production company.

 

[TomBrokaw]

In the 90s I worked for a moving and storage company.

One time Kevin and I were on a third floor walk up. Kevin had a wardrobe box, which is about 2' square by 4' tall and holds clothes from a metal rack, on his back. He was going down the stairs, from the apartment to the truck, with the box. A neighbor asked him "moving in or out?" Kevin says, "I don't know, I just like carrying these boxes around." Neighbor didn't think that was funny, demanded our boss' name and number. Our boss thought it was funny too.

 

[brookdalebill]

When I was 18, in 1975, I got a job at Capitol (TV) Cable Company.
It was a Union (CWA) job, and it paid 8.50 an hour.
The minimum wage in Texas at the time was 2.10 an hour.
It was a great paying job, that I wanted to keep, and “grow” in.
I did new cable installations, and disconnects.
It involved climbing telephone poles.
On a typical day, I’d get 20 work orders, roughly 10 installs, and 10 disconnects.
The new installs took precedent, the disconnects, being less financially important, would be done later in the afternoon.
In the 6 months I worked there, before quitting :
My instructor/partner “burned” a pole, meaning his climbing spikes didn’t get a good purchase, and he slid down the pole, and got creosote splinters in his legs, chest, hands, and, uh, groin.
Lesson learned, I never had the “pleasure”.

A guy shot at me through a closed door.
I knocked several times, about 3, he answered, I told him I needed 9.90 (two months at 4.95 a month), he took umbrage, and shot through the door.
He missed, I split.
I (CB) radioed the office, they said get out of there.
Apparently nothing ever came of it.

Later, a lady pointed a shotgun at me.
She didn’t fire, this time
I was up the pole doing her disconnection, and she was in a second story bedroom.
She didn’t want to be disconnected, I agreed, and climbed down the pole.

I was doing a disconnect on E. Riverside Dr., got up the pole, safety strapped up, opened the “flexy” (the cable outlet box), and it contained a Yellowjacket wasp nest.
They stung my face, neck and arms 13 times.
I had to take the safety belt off, and climb down, getting stung the whole time.
When I returned to the office, the ladies operating the phones shrieked.
My face looked like a clenched fist.
I went home, slept and went to work the next day.

Doing an install, while running cable through someone’s attic, my foot slipped off a 2X4 ceiling joist, and I put my foot through the ceiling.
As it was Union job, they could not summarily fire me.
To “punish” me, they put me in charge of a ditch digging crew, doing the then new underground cable.
The crew was older than me, and because one of the guys (they weren’t CCC employees, they were independent contractors) didn’t like being told what to do by a kid, pulled a knife on me.
I quit cold when I returned to the office.
I was nearly killed 4 times in the six months I worked there.
Crazy.

I started my music store career shortly thereafter.
Much, much safter.

 

[sammy1974]

I picked up a job on a farm one summer when I was in high school. Set to work and finished on time.

The owner liked me, paid me well and then said "maybe you can clean out the goat barn some time."

My response was "suuuurr..." as he swung open the barn doors, and all I could see above the 11 feet of manure was what looked like goat legs.

 

[Hiwatts-n-Gibsons]

The first one that came to mind was when I was 17 I was working at a Mexican Restaurant as a busser, and dating the cute big boobed blond hostess. We went to the break room together for a smoke break, and ended up banging in the bathroom.

 

[Vibroluxer]

I was working at Sun Life of Canada when Barbara came in one day and announced she was pregnant. Joe instantly replied "I didn't know her husband was a drinking man."

I miss that guy.

 

[Toto'sDad]

After the windstorm of 77 Me, Low Gear and Fast Eddy were hauling sand out of a place that had been covered up by the storm. We were getting ready to go on a much larger clean up job, so we were hurrying to get this job done.

Anyway, we were shooting bull on the CB and we start hearing from this guy called the "old timer." Anyway, Fast Eddy hooked up with the old timer, and they would talk every time we would go by his house. It had a big triple wide driveway out front. Finally, the old timer talked Fast Eddy into dumping one of the loads of sand in his driveway. The old timer said he needed it really bad to repair his backyard.

Now, we're talking 27-foot semi end dumps of sand, probably at least 43,000 lbs. of it. Anyway, Eddy dumped the load, and a not very long period of time, the owner, (big boss) showed up on the job. It seems the "old timer" was actually Low Gear disguising his voice. All of us fell for it.

The boss chewed us all out but didn't fire us because after the windstorm every driver in Bakersfield was working. The boss sent a 966 loader, and a crew of laborers out to clean up the guy's yard. I don't know if he had to pay the owner of the place, I didn't ask.

 

[fretknot]

A day in the life working on a yacht....It was a good gig while it lasted.

New video · Tuesday, Jul 14, 2020 ð¬

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photos.app.goo.gl

 

[Robuckaroo]

We had a summer intern one year that was a nice guy but a bit cocky. He got pulled over by the sheriff’s dept for expired tags and had to make a court appearance.
On the day of his court appearance, he overslept but called the courthouse and got it rescheduled.
His big mistake was telling us co-workers about it.
A friend at the time was a deputy. He was retired military, built like a brick outhouse and had a look like he would kick your butt in a heartbeat. But he was actually was one of the nicest guys you could ever meet.
He agreed to come down and humble our intern. He showed up in full uniform and proceeded to tell the intern that he has missed his court date and would have to go to jail. The intern kept pleading his case to my buddy and explaining what happened and how the date had been rescheduled, but my deputy friend was acting like he believed none of it.
The intern was so torn up about the thought of going to jail that he was on the verge of tears. At that point, the deputy told him that his co-workers had put him up to this prank. The intern was so upset that he wasn’t listening and kept pleading not to be taken to jail. The deputy had to tell him three times that it was a prank. Once the intern finally realized what the deputy had said, the whole office burst into laughter.
Cruel I know. But it was hilarious.

 

[lowatter]

I worked as a maintenance dude at MANY apartment complexes for many years and saw just about anything you could imagine.
One morning about 15 years ago when I pulled into one of the complexes a young lady came running up to my service van all upset and said that there was a man sleeping on her private patio. I told her to stay outside and went in to check it out. Turns out some young black fellow was lying on her patio and was obviously dead. I knew that it was her upstairs neighbor that was rumored to have aids.
I called 911 and they wanted me to perform CPR. I told the dispatcher that he's been dead for a long time and that he may have aids and wasn't gonna touch him. His eyes were open and gray. After the coroner came she said that yes he's been dead for several hours and surmised that he dropped some of his meds from his balcony above her patio and tried to climb down to get them and fell and broke his hip and bled internally.
Again, I have TONS of stories like this from being a maintenance dude. This was nothing.

 

[johnny k]

One of my coworker was a young girl, maybe in her early 20's, and she asked me what time it was. I pointed at the clock on the wall, and she told me, i am a millenial, don't expect me to know how to read a clock.

 

[lammie200]

I worked in an office where one of the principals was a fastidious fool. He thought he was god’s gift to design. In an adjacent office suite was a young woman who would bring her two Rhodesian ridgeback dogs to work. Everyone would usually leave their office suite entry doors open for air circulation.

The principal bought a large area rug for the reception area in our office and just had it delivered when the woman arrived for work and got off the elevator with her dogs. One of the dogs sprinted to the new rug and took a huge watery dump. I can still hear the horror on the principal’s scream as he watched it happen. Priceless.

 

[brookdalebill]

Now for some good ones.
I met my first wife while working for Berkman’’s, a local rental (TVs, stereo equipment, office equipment) company, in 1981.
She worked at the University (Guadalupe St.) branch of the store, I managed the service center, on Burnet Rd.

At my half dozen music store jobs, I met Eric Johnson, who became my guitar teacher, SRV, Steve Morse, Frank Marino, Robben Ford, AJ Croce, Mike Judge, Bobby Whitlock (Derek &), Jerry Jeff Walker, Jimmie Vaughan, Nat Stuckey, Gary Stewart, Kim Mitchell, and lots of others I can’t recall.

I learned to do minor repairs and set ups, a skill I still use.

 

[Lou Tencodpees]

Kind of a serious one but I'm reminded of it every time I see my wedding ring (which I haven't worn for years and need refitted). For the first 9 years of my 34 year career at the same place I ran the parts department for our service organization. Our inside crew also had a "set up" department that consisted of two older guys that prepped office equipment for installation. I loved these guys, one in particular named Bob became our Hawkeye Pierce. He was like my dad away from home.

One Monday morning I came in and as usual made small talk with him about the Superbowl game the night before. Around 10 a.m. we had a roach coach that would show up and I went over to the half door leading to his department to let him know. I saw two other coworkers helping him put his coat on, saying "Bob's not feeling well." His face was ashen. They took him to a nearby ER. An hour or so later one of our field managers who also rushed down to the hospital came walking in. I asked her how Bob was and tearfully she said he died. He was code blue by the time they got there, maybe a 2 minute drive. I believe it was a widow maker heart attack.

Dismayed, pissed about some undue stress they had piled on him in recent months, I punched a metal cabinet and flattened my wedding band. I was 25 and he had just celebrated his 50th birthday. He was the first signifant loss I ever experienced, still think about him often.

 

[Dave Hicks]

Random access is all I got these days.

I was passing through a biology lab and a young lady was looking at anatomical models. She asked me where the "phallus" might be and turned bright red when I pointed it out.

D.H.