Chapter 1

These are memories of my 45 years working in the Electric Power Field. Mostly as an Electric Journeyman Lineman climbing and building power lines across America. Traveling Linemen were called "Tramps". Many of my expressions, terms, tool names and actions are used only in the Lineman Trade. I will try to explain them as I go and try not to interrupt the stories. (Which, by the way, are mostly true) If any are not understandable to you, please Email me with the Link at the bottom and I will try to explain what I'm talking about. Deal???

Well, I'll just blame it all on Larry Blanke! He got me started on many adventures, including a coed group skinny-dipping at the Holyrood Lake. There I was, minding my own business (another line that I always wanted to use to start a story) playing pool and actually winning, when he came in flashing his money. He had found a job with an Oilfield Electric Contractor in Great Bend, KS just 30 miles from our home town of Holyrood (pop 601). He was making $1.25 per hour and working 80+ hours weekly and I just knew I wanted some of that. He said they were hiring and I should go there Monday.

I had been doing some odd jobs in the oil field that were odd to me. I was only 19 and still growing, yet smaller than most of the guys around town. The oil field was too harsh to me, very dirty work. I was wanting and dreaming of the usual needs, like a better car, etc. So I went to see Bucky the owner of C&P Electric, got hired and started work the same day. This was on Halloween, Monday, October 31st, 1960. They mostly set poles, strung wire and hung electric power transformers energizing oil field pumping wells converting from diesel and natural gas. Also many of the new wells recently drilled started off with electric motors running them. We loaded up the trucks and away we went heading west out of town.

My crew hauled materials, drug and scattered poles to where they would be put in the ground and did lots of hand digging with "banjos and spades". These are shovels with long handles that will dig holes down to 10' and over. Also included in these "digging sets" are long, heavy steel digging bars Well, it didn't take me long to see I did not want to do this for very long, I wanted to be a Lineman as their work just looked easier and paid better.

We were on a new lease where many wells had been drilled. I drove my truck right into a recently filled waste water pit that was used while drilling. Growing up in the oil field I knew the uses for these pits and how to spot them but I was excited about driving this large truck, larger than the farm trucks I had driven before. My brother once brought home a dead rabbit that he said he had killed, but from looking and smelling, our mom knew that rabbit had drowned in a pit. Anyway, I knew that I was going to be fired on my 1st day, but the Foreman just brought another truck, hooked up a long chain and drug me out of that pit. Another word was not said and back to scattering materials I went.

When I got home that night I went to see the owner of our local hardware store. I asked if he had and lineman hooks and belts for sale. I told him about my new job and what I wanted to do. He said he had an old pair he used to use that he would give me. The hooks were an old pair of Army Surplus Buckingham "straights" and the gaffs had been sharpened into a round shape. He said the leather belt was too small for him anymore but I needed to check out the many repairs on it made with bailing wire and leather laces to make sure it was still safe. The safety strap that goes around the pole was also not in very good repairs. I was very excited to show up the next day for work with my new Lineman tools!

I proudly showed Bucky my "new" tools and he quickly took me and my tools to an old Lineman working back in his shop. He said to show me the right way to sharpen the gaffs and to check out my belt and safety. He told my Foreman to take me out and see if I could climb. Well, he did and I did. Most of the poles set in the oil field for the 3-Wire Secondary voltage of 480 volts were from 30' tall up to sometimes 50' tall. It was a struggle, but I got to the top without "burning" (gaffs cutting out and free falling) any poles. That day. No more being a Grunt, now another Lineman on the crews!

Bucky had relatives in my town of Holyrood, so he had heard of Larry and mine's escapades. He kept us usually on separate crews, especially when we stayed out of town and stayed in hotels or in motels. One of his trucks was a flatbed truck with an "A-Frame" gin poles attached to the end of the truck's bed. A winch line went over the end of it and a large auger hung from it. It was very handy to dig holes and set poles quickly. When travelling, the gin poles were lowered and pinned to keep below overhead wires and the auger was held up to the truck bed with the winch line.

It was usually parked out back of C&P's office yard, but one day Larry decided to park it near the office so it would be ready to go the next morning. He backed it into a parking slot, then felt a large bump. He drove the truck forward, got out, walked around the truck but couldn't see anything. So he backed it up again and the same thing happened. By this time Bucky was out the front door and yelled at Larry. He started pointing up. Larry looked up and saw where the gin poles had gone through the outside wall right over the desk in Bucky's office. Well, that pretty much ended his truck driving days!

So Larry usually went with an electrician to do the final hookups on the wells or just to troubleshoot and repair the older installations. We had an electrician that had worked many years for Mobil Oil Co and he was very good. But the wild women and whiskey got him down when he was working for Mobil in Thailand. Mobil gave him a choice: Give up the (mostly) whiskey or give up your job. He gave up the job and ended up working for Bucky. After Bucky died from a tractor rolling over him on his farm, Syd was one of those that bought out C&P Electric.