Friday, September 24, 2010

Person Graf #7

Did you ever work with someone who just amazed you every time they spoke. Someone that when they started to speak, no matter what you were doing, you shut up just to pay attention. I worked with such a guy in my formative years and the lessons he taught me, I pass on today. His name was Charlie and he was an Assistant Chief for the fire department I was a member of at the time. He had started in the fire service in the early 70's and was gearing up for retirement. This guy knew everything. He was a great old school fireman, a carpenter, a mechanic, a comedian, and a very wise man. He got into the fire service after being an Army mechanic in Vietnam. That was back when there were much more fires than there are today. He had gained an unmeasurable amount of experience from seeing so much fire. He was like the guys you see in the movies, as your working your way into the fire he's coming out with no air-pack on and his coat wide open like it was no big deal. I was fortunate that he liked me and over time he stated to teach me little tricks here and there, and give me pointers about things to look for in a fire. These little things have become invaluable as my career has progressed and now I'm the old guy passing these tricks on to the younger guys.
Charlie was one of those guys that, if he couldn't fix it, it wasn't broken. I recall one time he had to replace a gauge in the cab of one of the fire engines. The new gauge didn't fit the hole that was left from the broken gauge in the dash. Once realizing this, Charlie stepped back, lit up a smoke, looked at the problem and contemplated for a couple of minutes. I sat there waiting to see what he was going to do. I though about trying to interject something to possibly help the situation but decided not to because I knew any useless little tid-bit I could add, would just distract him. After a couple of minutes, Charlie looks at me and says, “Kid.” (he called everybody Kid), “Kid go over and get that empty Coke can.” I did, and he took the can, looked at it closely, took off to the work bench and in a couple minutes was back with the bottom of the can cut out and the new gauge in it. This thing was a work of art. The gauge fit perfectly in the now cut out indent of the bottom of the can. The ring left by the rest of the can fit perfectly into the dash. It looked like it was factory installed. Charlie was one of those people that was naturally smart although never went past high school. One of those people that was extremely knowledgeable about many different things. He was a natural leader and people lined up to follow him. He was a great mentor to me and others in my generation, although he would never admit it.

 

1 comment:

  1. There's a story in 'Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance' about using strips cut off an aluminum can to shim a handlebar so that it wouldn't rotate--the motorcycle purists were horrified, of course....

    Charlie's coke can reminds me of that.

    Offer this one to the Eyrie--they might like it as much as I do. I think most of all I like that your central story about the man was something non-heroic, at least in a physical sense, but very telling about an attitude and a way of life we can see receding around us every day.

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