Ladders are a wonderful invention.  They are probably as old as man.  They are also a very dangerous tool.  A purely non-scientific and mostly anecdotal conclusion I have reached is that ladders probably cause more injuries than any other piece of equipment in existence.

I imagine there are many books of rules regarding ladder safety.  Each ladder manufacturer has a set of rules.  Probably each individual state safety agency has a set of rules.  There is the national occupational safety organization.   And I suppose even testing organizations have their books of rules.

One of the rules I see often that still puzzles me to this day, is the one that says you are not to stand one rung less than two feet from the top of the ladder.  –  How do you use a two foot ladder?

There is an expression that used to puzzle me; “chicken ladder.”  Then came the time I used a chicken ladder.  It was a ladder nailed down to a roof.  I could see where the expression came from.  It is built like a chicken roost; the term is not to imply that you’re afraid to use it.

Of course the look of a chicken ladder reminded me of an old story about Native Americans on a hill overlooking the building of the first transcontinental railroad.  Their comment was, “Crazy White Man, build ladder on ground.”

I recall hearing of a man that was using a ladder while working on a high sign.  He fell off and landed on the cement sidewalk.  He survived but was crippled the rest of his life.

I had one bad experience with a ladder.  I was working in an area where the cement floor had been “cured” using an oil, making the floor less abrasive than normal.  A lean-to ladder is supposed to be tied off top and bottom.  Foolishly I had failed to do this.  I was in a hurry.

The ladder slipped away from the wall it was leaning on and I fell.  I managed to land on my feet on the concrete floor.  Fortunately, no bones were broken but both of my ankles were sprained.  They were sore for a month.

My father was an expert “ladder faller offer.”  When he was picking fruit in an orchard, with constant use of ladders, if he fell he would roll up tight like a ball as he left the ladder.

Of late, my son David has acquired the name of “Ladder Rider.”  One time he was up on an extension ladder removing and relocating an overhead service.  The service was attached to a 6×6 treated post.  In the midst of the job, while he was at the top of the post, the post broke about 5 feet high out of the ground.  The upper part of the post came down.  The ladder came down.  And David came down.  Fortunately the top part of the post went one direction and the ladder, with David on it, went another.  Neither contacted the sharp end of the post coming out of the ground.  He landed with his feet on the side rails of the ladder, spanning a ditch, jumped off and looked at me like “see there?”

I think the same principle must apply to speed skaters when they fall.  Speed skaters don’t get broken bones as often as you would expect.  When you are moving fast you don’t hit the bottom hard.  You actually skid along.

Personally I have decided that using a bucket truck lift is safer and quicker.

I have mentioned how I didn’t like to get away from solid footing.  That’s me.  Some people are regular daredevils.

On one job we had set some metal poles that were quite tall.  The poles were engineered to telescope together in pieces, placed on top of one another to reach the required height.  You may have noticed quite a few of them recently.

On the job I was on we had used a bucket truck to set some of the first, lower, sections, but as we got higher the bucket truck no longer sufficed and a crane had to be used to lift more sections up.  A man was required to go up the pole on pre-installed pegs to help guide the next section in and fasten it in place.

One of the boys I worked with would scamper up these poles like he was right at home.  He would climb to the very top and stand there looking around the countryside.  One time he announced; “I can see your house from here, Adrian.”  It was about 5 miles away.  Just to say he did it, he then went over the top and came down the other side.

Iron workers that work in tall buildings are another group I would call daredevils.  Iron workers will go up the framework of a structure as they are assembling it.  I have wondered if they have a death wish.

Another group of daredevils that I met on one of our jobs was a crew of Native Americans that would assemble T.V. antenna structures.  When they put together the structure on the outskirts of the town I was living in, the tower was quite large.

The tower was so large that a temporary lift was installed on the inside of the framework.  When the lift could go no higher, this crew would get out and climb up the legs of the tower to do their work.  The tower was supported by guy wires running from the upper reaches of the tower to the ground, and they were periodically checked for proper tension.

To do our electrical end of the job, we would carry the light fixtures, conduit and wire to the top of the structure and work our way down.  We installed one light fixture at the top and added to that on our way down at regular intervals.

Maintenance of the light fixtures and bulbs as well as the inspection of the guy wires required someone to go up and come down this tall tower regularly.  The crew that installed the tower solved part of that requirement by attaching a small hand cart with a breaking system to a guy wire and then zip down the guy wire to the ground.

The descent could be described as “rapid.”  Sometimes the breaking only occurred at the very end of the ride.

After finishing the job I was on, the tower crew moved south to another town to install another tower.  During the construction of that tower, the tower tipped over and killed everyone on the crew including the man on the truck.

You gain a lot of respect for men like that.

And it’s why I try to stay as close to the ground as possible.

Rich or Poor

I remember meeting many interesting individuals in my years as an electrician.  One gentleman I knew owned a delicatessen across the street from the Post Office in Havre, Montana.  He attracted a great many customers because of his food.

His commercial advantage was due to the fact that he owned several feed lots around the town and could fatten up his meat stock before butchering it for his own deli.  He also had some large ovens for making his own pastries.

I was frequently called down to the deli for maintenance work and to add wiring for additional appliances.

The deli had a high ceiling and frequently I would work over the heads of the staff.  One day I was working on a light fixture on the high ceiling.  The fixture was about 4 feet long and had some of the early fluorescent light tubes as bulbs.  The tube in this particular fixture was almost 2 inches in diameter.

Below me was one of the deli employees, a young girl, either putting something into, or taking something out of, one of the ovens.  At that point I accidentally dropped the fluorescent bulb I was working with.  It landed flat on the floor, right beside the young lady, … and exploded.

The sound was akin to a bomb going off.

The young lady moved like she had been shot.  I’m amazed she didn’t have a heart attack or faint.  Today something like that would get you sued.  As she took time to recover I apologized profusely while I cleaned up the mess.

Some time later I noticed that the deli was no longer in business.  I was worried that I might have been responsible in some way.

After time had passed I was sent to do wiring on a house in the midst of a remodel.  When I arrived I saw that it was owned by the man that had operated the deli.  The carpenter on the job was talking to the home owner and we found out that the home owner, who had owned the deli, had inherited a large fortune.  He had sold his deli and feed lots and retired.

The carpenter inquired of him how it felt to have all the money you want.  The reply from the home owner was that; “It had taken all of the fun out of life.”

He told us that before, when he had wanted to buy something, he saved in anticipation of the purchase.  Then when he finally had the money, he would go buy it.  Now when he wanted something he just went and bought it.

As he put it, it was ‘like buying a box of rocks.”

I thought to myself “how observant.”  The Bible tells us “Untruth and the lying word put far away from me.  Give me neither poverty nor riches.  Let me devour the food prescribed for me, that I man not become satisfied and actually deny you and say ‘Who is Jehovah?’ and that I may not come to poverty and I actually steal and assail the name of my God.” – Prov. 30:8

When I started my own company, that scripture was posted on a wall in our office.