Grunt

The summer I was 18 I had a job as a grunt, a lineman's helper, on a new power line that was passing C'ville and continuing on for 15 miles to a lake with an electric powered gold mining dredge on it. I had been the survey crew the previous summer with Jim Delaney, my schoolmate, and knew how the route went from one end to the other. I surprised how different it looked when the right of way was 150 feet wide. We set 45' spruce poles in the ground. Next I was a 'grunt' and my lineman was the most senior and the smallest of the crew. He could swear for 5 minutes without repeating himself. He knew how to utilize his grunt to his best advantage and I was the one sent to pick up the lineman who had fallen or carry messages up and down the line. I could be trusted to do the job and was faster than anyone else.

At the north end of the line we had a steep canyon to cross with the power line; that's three copper and steel high tension cables of 33,000 volts each when they 'tho-tha-switch'. When we got there they were still getting the first cable to the bottom of the canyon with Jim over the edge of the ridge, picking his way to the bottom of the canyon. The weight of the three-strand cable caused it to pull itself down the hill faster than Jim could mince his way down. The cable would loop and kink as Jim tried to keep up. 'Course I was sent down to 'hep' but all I could do was to urge Jim to hurry for every kind required a 'cut-n-splice' of the cable! By the time I was back at the top of the hill I had the solution! The spools the cable came on were 5 feet in diamter and were mounted on an axle so the wire could be drawn off the top.

"Can you put a couple of drag brakes on that spool?" I'm asking as I wrap a 1-inch manila line around my waist. The nod confirms this as I hook the end of the wire to the line. "Then do it!" When the crew was clear on what I wanted I stepped to the brow of the hill and plunged over the edge. The slope was greater than 60 degrees, like to the Big Hole! I leaned down the hill as the rope around my waist held me back! I danced against the tug of the cable and was able to take full strides as the cable picked up speed. With reckless abandon I pranced down the slope, even leaping over cliffs in my mad scramble toward the bottom. I'm thinking 'what if I see a rattler in my path and can't turn aside?" Then I conclude 'I'm going too fast to be struck by a rattler! I wave at Jim as I swing past him standing there with his mouth open, exulting in my strides like seven league boots gone mad! My exhilaration was so great that in my euphoria the power poles and crew seemed to float up toward me as I neared the bottom of the hill. Regret filled my being for I knew my flight was over.

Someone else brought the last cable down as I had done and Jim made it down after that. That trip was better than Buck Rogers could ever have made it even with an Anti-Gravity Belt!