Part un
Let me set this up. It is June, 1962. High School Graduation was over. It is time for this young man to get cracking. Life was out there waiting and I wanted a chance at claiming some of it. Because of application deadlines, I was faced early on with the decision of whether or not to attend Sierra Junior College in the Fall. I was tired of school for a while, so I chose to either find a decent job or go in the military in the Fall. This decision brings me to the following narrative which I would like to share with anyone interested.
This is rather lengthy, so I have split it into three separate pieces. Don’t be to serious here; just have some fun following this kid through his process.
With High School graduation over, it now was time to start making some moves towards getting my adult life phase moving along. I went to work for a man who was breaking ground for a Highway rest stop near Verdi, Nevada. This was to be a last chance type of facility for travelers returning from Reno, and was situated right before the California border on the westbound lanes of Interstate 80. This sounded pretty good and so I signed up. When I arrived for work in the morning, I was the only one there. The owner handed me a pick and a shovel and showed me where to start digging the footing trench for his building. I'm still looking around for the rest of the workers or the backhoe. There was just me. I looked at the building stakes and this building was huge. I started digging and moved along fairly well. It was kind of tough going. There was a lot of hardpan, but, I had done this kind of work before and knew you had to be patient. At lunch, I asked the owner if there were other employees. He said no, I should be able to handle the footing trench. With raised eyebrows, I said OK. At the end of the day, I had about had it and the owner comes up and says "I need three times more than you did today at the end of the shift tomorrow." I handed him the shovel and pick and said "Have at it; I'd like my time". He shook his head and said "I can't keep you guys on the job" I thought to myself, no small wonder there. I made $16.00 for that day's labor, and I was out of work.
I then went down to Truckee, CA and found employment at a sawmill. They put me on the Greenchain. I'm here to tell you that will make a man out of you. Teams of two men stacked the newly sawn green lumber readying it for insertion into the kiln for drying.

The illustration shows the stacking racks and to the right are the conveyers that bring the green, freshly cut, lumber down to the racks. One man was stationed at each end of the racks. These boards are extremely heavy and you have to quickly develop a coordination of movement symmetry with your partner or you will fight each other and end up working each other to death. Watching those experienced men was a thing of beauty. It didn't appear that they even broke a sweat, so smooth they were. When I started, it took quite a while to get on to the system, but before the day was over I was told I had become barely tolerable. I took that as quite high praise. The first two hours, though, my partner wanted to throw me over the fence. I did manage to keep my big mouth shut and did the best I could to pick up the rhythm. My partner’s arms were the size of my legs, and he, in no uncertain terms, told me he would come down and whip my ass if one of his fingers got caught between the boards. It is amazing how attentive to instruction you can become with the proper motivation. I really enjoyed this job because once you got into it, your mind was freed up to speculate about other matters. But, having achieved minimal success, I had already come to the conclusion that I needed to be doing something that was a little more thought provocative.
Now in my limited experience that need for challenge manifested itself as a desire to do something else in the sawmill. There is some real ambition! I checked with the Mill Boss and he said he needed a Pond Monkey. I told him, sounds good to me. When I answered him, a quizzical look registered on his face, but He said show up in the morning at the log pond. Bright and early the next morning found me at there standing tall and the Mill Boss handed me a twelve foot Pike pole.
Continued in Part duex
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