Re: [gardeners]Sunday in the garden

George Shirley (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Tue, 23 May 2000 14:40:08 -0500 

Around here most of our part-timer craftsmen are firemen or policemen or shift
workers at one of the plants. In my business I use some of each who are
emergency medical technicians to teach CPR/First Aid for me. The firemen and
policemen get such terribly low salaries for what they do that most of them have
two or three part time jobs, sorta like school teachers who are the other big
labor pool for part time work. I ain't getting any of these guys to escort me
though, most of 'em are very large and can be very mean if they want to be. I've
made friends with enough of them that I get invited down to the closest
firehouse for lunch sometimes.

George

penny x stamm wrote:
> 
> Margaret, there's an interesting aside to this hiring problem ---
> 
> I latched on to a fireman who does carpentry as a sideline about
> 6 years ago, when my house suffered incredible damage from
> an ice storm -- he happened to be the brother-in-law of the fiance
> of my son-in-law's brother (gulp!) and he opened new horizons
> for us . . .   I then hired his fireman friend and neighbor to replace
> my roofing, and he continues to come to clean the gutters since
> Jimmie's so wobbly with the 30 ft ladder. After that came the
> fireman with a mini-back hoe, who did septic tanks. Then we
> got the fireman who specialized in shower leaks.....  My original
> fireman brought his cousin, the Canine Corps local policeman,
> to lay fresh insulation in my 100 ft long attic, after that ice
> storm.  And then they did the 130 ft driveway sealing for me,
> and added extra electrical wiring for outdoor lights.
> 
> They're ALL superfragilistic-something-calidocious guys
> who are polite, extraordinarily neat, prompt, and my heart's
> delight.  If I ever moved to a new community, I would knock
> on the firehouse door and ask for some help, for sure.
> 
> The problem I have with planting the shrubs is Jimmie's
> die-hard effort to consider himself still capable of climbing
> Mt.Ranier.  Neighbors and even strangers stop to beg him
> to hire someone to shovel the snow -- and gosh, even the
> garbage men mother him -- last week, after one week away
> in St.Louis, we had 14 barrels of lawn clippings to send to
> the county compost.  The men returned three times in one
> day, to remove the stuff...!  (Usually, when there's a backlog,
> Jim lifts 3 barrels into the trunk of the car, and brings it up
> to the dump by himself, making as many trips as necessary.)
> 
> One of these days I am going to find him slumped in a heap
> in the driveway, I know it. But he will not be stopped.  He says
> to me, "I'm not 78, I'm 50. And that's that."
> 
> However, Margaret, it is v-e-r-y tempting to call the escort
> service . . . . . .
> 
> Penny, NY
> 
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