I worked on the Sacred Heart Hospital while it was being built.  I had the privilege of working with a crew of about 50 electricians.  The building was constructed out of poured concrete.  They used small cranes for several floors.  An opening was left in the center of the building in each floor.  The crane would lift itself up to the next floor and the hole would be poured shut.

For a long time I worked on the temporary lighting.  I would take a long string of wire cable and install a series of lights on it.  Each light string would be installed on a particular floor so that light was available until the permanent lighting was installed.  Then we would take the temporary light string down, make repairs and go to the next floor.

To have room to make up the temporary lighting, as well as repair it, I would stretch out the temporary light string in the yard about shoulder height.  From there I would install the fixtures or make repairs, then take the string inside the building and install it.  Every so often someone would inquire about what I was doing out in the yard.  My response was; “I’m building a fence – our cows have long legs.”

When the building project was fairly well along, there was no more need for temporary lighting.  I was assigned to installing permanent fixtures in the building.  While the finish carpenters were installing cabinetry, I was assigned to work on one of the floors down at the end of a hallway.  I can’t remember what it was now, but whatever needed to be worked on had been changed or had been left incomplete.

As I walked down the hallway I came across a finish carpenter.  I talked to him briefly and continued down to where I was to work.  As I was working, I heard the carpenter say; “Hey, come here!”  I thought to myself: “That was sure a strange thing to call out.”  What did he want?  He didn’t sound desperate and I was anxious to get my work done.  The second time he called out, I decided to go see what was up.

I came down off my ladder and was about to go down the hallway when I heard voices talking with him.  At least two other people.  I thought he had help if he needed it so I went back to work.  At the end of the day I was walking down the hallway, he was in one of the rooms working.  As I passed he said; “You wouldn’t come and help a guy when he was in trouble.”

He told me he was trying to fit a cabinet into a corner and it didn’t quite fit.  So he had leaned the cabinet over to walk behind it.  It reached almost to the opposite wall.  He caught his finger between the cabinet and the wall.  He was stuck there until someone came along to help.

It seemed a strange way to call for help.  Maybe he didn’t like to use the word “Help.” Or maybe he was too embarrassed.

I think he should have used “May Day!”, or just “Help!  Help!”