What I Learned From Carpenters In The 1970s
When I started working in construction, the year was 1978
and carpenters usually brought their dogs to the job, had their radios
blasting out loud music and there was plenty of alcohol that was
consumed on a regular basis. These carpenters that I'm talking about,
weren't really interested in safety or doing exceptionally good work.
It didn't take me long to figure out that most of the people that worked
in the construction business, back then drank a lot and some of them
were even what I would consider to be alcoholics. This never seemed to
bother most of the people that they worked with, as long as they did
their job.
When I say that their work was okay, these people were usually more
concerned about the activities after work than they were concerned about
activities during work. Their biggest problem was running out of alcohol
and whose turn it was to go down to the local liquor store to resupply
the troops.
Quite a few of the carpenters that I worked with, didn't really seem to
care about anything, including the work that they were doing. If
something was wrong or they messed something up, they really never gave
it a second thought. If the construction foreman ever came up and
challenge them about some of the work that they had done, they would
simply promised to buy them some more alcohol and the problem was
solved.
This was a rough and rugged bunch of carpenters and I really couldn't
ever imagine what they were like 20 years before this, but I did learn a
valuable lesson from these carpenters. It's important to take pride in
what you do and do the job the best that you can.
I wasn't ever interested in being like these guys. Their carefree
attitudes towards other people and their work, seemed to be a reflection
of who they became later on. I learned a lot from these old-timers, even
if it was only that I never wanted to live a life like they did.
It's always going to be better to do the best job that you can or that
you are capable of doing and the rewards will come in the future as a
result of the choices you make in the present.