Personal Protection

Today Thel had an old friend call him. They used to enjoy playing music together.

The friend needed Thel to play his guitar in a small group, at a nursing home.

Thel turned him down, he hated to, he knew that he was needed.

The friends hearing is bad, he turns his amplifier up, to loud.

And there is a nice lady that we used to be friends with, she plays the piano well.

But she just bangs on the piano, to loud.

Thel's ears hurt when he is around them. He wants to protect his hearing.

He worked at General Dynamics around jet engines, the noise was deafening.

The company provided thick coveralls with helmets and ear protection built in. Air was pumped into the suits to keep them cool enough to wear. They were clumsy and a bother to put on and wear. Many men did not use that protection and they gradually lost their hearing. I have heard several of them admit that they knew that they caused their own hearing loss. "It was just to much trouble to put on."

He was working on the second shift, testing airplanes that were being built.

On the third shift a big hanger was often not used. Every crew had an electrician, that had been to school and certified. Thel was that electrician on one shift. One of his jobs was to turn off the 440 switch and there would be no electricity in that whole hanger that was not being used. The switch was outside.

Thel kept a dry board on the top of his big roll-around tool box. He would lay it on the ground and stand on it when he turned that switch off. He fixed a board three feet long, with a spike nail on each side of the end. He could hook a nail on the switch to turn the 440 electricity off. He kept it dry too. He would not take a chance, touching that 440.

It did not bother him that he was laughed at.

One rainey night another electrician run out and flipped the switch. After what happened to him, Thel was not laughed at any more.

Richard can finish his work history. From the time he was riding his motorcycle in the Marines and reached back to adjust something on the back sprocket. He put his severed middle finger in his pocket and carried it to the Doctors on the base. None of them could sew it back on, for him.

About thirty years later he got the same answer, after he cut the same finger from

his other hand, when he pulled on a wheel of a big motor, trying to start it.

We have all made us a telephone out of two tin cans. Cut one end out, punch a hole in the center of the other end. Put a string from one tin can to the other. Hold it kinda tight and talk while the other party listens. You try it.