22 Jun 2022 5:45 pm
My time in the bread factory was not as extreme as you lay out. I never missed a day either. Tore a muscle in my upper back (Trapezius) right off the spine and kept working. There was a lot of lifting involved in this job. Hundreds of 50 lb bags. Never went to a doctor, never filed a workmen's comp claim, nothing. Well that boneheaded decision has haunted me ever since. I would do that job again if given the chance to go back. It gave me perspective into the labor world that restaurants, janitorial, and call centers would not have.Cannonpointer » 22 Jun 2022, 5:38 pm » wrote: ↑ In my youth, I worked the oil patch. You worked hurt, you worked sore, you worked tired, you worked hard as a mother ****. I once did a double tour - that's 24 hours straight, - tripping pipe the entire time. We were using hydrochloric in the drilling fluid and the mud-catcher was worn to nothing, so a fine mist of HCL permeated the air, got on my pants and on the lip of my boot, and wore aginst my skin so that I had a couple of third degree acid burns the size of silver dollars by the end of my second tour.
I ain't bragging or complaining - well, okay. maybe bragging a little. But if I could go back and whisper in that 21 year old's ear, I'd probably tell him to wise the **** up. Probably - lol. Probably not - lol!
Thing is, I was raised on oil field stories. I just didnt have "fold" in my vocbulary. Men work hurt - that was my understanding and my social contract. At the time, it always confused me that women would get mad when you cme back from a hitch injured, and they found out you had worked hurt. I felt they should respect that. Instead, they got all pissy about it. I just chalked it up to women not having any sense. Now I understand that they were the ones with sense.
Okay, writing all of that out, I came to grips with the fact that I am proud of the young man that I used to be - proud of his grit, - and I would **** do it again.
