In the year 1962 I was employed at a steel fabricating company. It was there I became friends with a young fellow named John. Being about the same age, we hit it off pretty well. One day John and I had been working in the yard assembling the parts to a large storage tank. John yells, "ike, you got a watch"? I said no, but I knew what time it was. "Man, how you know that"? So, I put on my little show. I looked up at the sun, turned to face north, held out both my arms, looked down at my shadow, made a few adjustments in my direction and arm angles and said, "one dollar says it's within 5 minutes of 10:15am". John says, "your on", and rushed inside the building to check the clock. Upon returning, John hands me a dollar, growling a "just shut up". Another time, John bought a used Harley Davidson motorcycle from Ben, another employee. The first day John rode it to work he parked it on a cement slab in front of the building. While John was out back working on something, Ben saw his chance for a bit of fun and made a puddle of oil under the bike's engine. Lunch time came and John went to ride his bike to get something to eat. Seeing the oil puddle, he rushed back inside yelling for Ben. We all had a good laugh, at John's expense. One day John and I were ordered to move a pile of angle and channel iron from the second floor onto the company truck and deliver it somewhere. There was an alley way between the buildings. I parked the truck in position under the second floor door while John lifted the load with an electric hoist and moved it to the doorway on the overhead rail. Climbing into the back of the truck, I waited for John to push the load out on the rail and lower it to the truck, where I would position it. Well, as John pushed it out, a very strong gust of wind hit the load, unbalancing it and causing the load to slide out of the cables and crash down on the truck. Fortunately, I bailed off in time. The truck didn't fare so well. Part of the cab was smashed on the passenger side and the windshield was broke. John was pale and shaking, thinking we would be fired. We weren't fired, but the boss made us hand load the truck and make the delivery, even though there was no windshield. John's been long gone now, and so is the fabricating company.
Thanks Joe. I have one more "John" story. Across the street from the fabricating company building, was a small two story apartment house. From the second floor of our building, one could look right into the front bedroom of the apartment building. Some mornings half our crew was gathered at a second floor window. Seems John knew the couple who lived there. One morning, the shades were pulled down and stayed down forever after. John got the blame for ruining our entertainment, and rightly so.
After reading both your stories, Ike, It seems that the second floor should have been "Off Limits" to John!
It's great to have a buddy at work that you can count on and trust. People are genuinely nice and fun to work with most of the time. You had a great friend and co-worker in your pal John. It's nice of you to share a part of your life. Thank you for a wonderful story.