In the days of my Youth - Hard Knocks

In the Days of my Youth Hard Knocks "Paddle Like Hell" A buddy of mine wanted to go night fishing really bad, so we went and got his aluminum canoe and strapped it to the top of his little foreign car, I was sure we'd be stopped before we ever made it to a fishing spot. We wound up on the Intercoastal Waterway where Barges travel regularly. We fished on the near side for a while, but weren't getting any bites. He said, Let's paddle across and see what happens over there. I said, In this little thing? He goes, Why not? I had my doubts, but I said okay, it's your boat, so I guess you're the Captain. We looked for traffic but didn't see anything, so we started across. We were just about in the middle of the channel when I saw a flashing light and knew it had to be a Barge headed straight for us. I said what should we do about that, turn back? About what, he goes. That Barge. Oh shit! We can still turn back, I said. Paddle like hell, he screamed. We can still go back. I'm the Captain! Paddle like hell! We passed right in front of it. The wake from the Barge was next and almost capsized us. We made it to the other side and still caught nothing. On the way back there weren't any Barges, Thank God. A week or two later he came by my place and wanted me to go with him to the pier on Pensacola Beach. I said, Sure that sounds like fun. While we were there a boat came in dragging a great big Hammer Head Shark. Let's go look, he goes. So we asked what they were going to do with it. They said, You can have it if you want. He was thrilled! We started wrestling with the dead fish and realized we couldn't even lift it once we got it out of the water, so we left it there. I was fully dressed, and had to throw away the clothes I had on because they stunk so bad even after being washed twice. "Pillsbury Dough Boy" When I was about sixteen I went to work for "Man Power" a day labor outfit that was nationwide at the time. I was un-loading train cars at the Shipping Dock. "Provided by The United States of America" was stamped on each hundred pound sack of flour. We had to lift them by hand and stack them on a pallet held by a fork lift machine waitng by the door of the box car. My blue jeans and T-Shirt were impossible to clean, the combination of sweat and flour was permanently embedded. After a while all my clothes were ruined. They finally moved me to a storage warehouse. Easy Street! At that point I started to realize I could do more than just labor work. I saw welders fixing steel shelving towers, and forklift drivers moving stuff around for them. It looked like something I'd like to try, so I enrolled in a one year technical welding course at Pensacola Junior College where both of my parents worked. "Boom Boom" I used to ride with one of the Big Bosses at "F.E. Booker Company" A General Contractor where I was employed from age 19 to 26. Leo would pick me up at a convenience store that was on his way to the shop. I had to be there at 5:45 sharp or he would just get his coffee and cigarettes and keep going. We arrived at six AM as usual one morning, he went in the office and I was filling the water kegs with ice and "Gator Aid Powder". I heard the other supervisor, Bobby Grant arguing with Sam, the shop foreman about a 55 Gallon drum he wanted to have made into a trash can. Sam was supposed to have someone cut the top out, but it hadn't been done. I said, I have time right now, I'll go do it. They said, that would be great John. It's out by the welding shed you put together. We tore it down from a job at Ellison Field. I was told ahead of time that I would need to save all the peices and parts. I numbered the wall sections and put it all back together, but that's another story. I knew what had to be done, just cut the top out without cutting the reinforcing lip. They said it was already filled with water to prevent fumes from igniting, but it was an oil drum, so that was just a precaution. It was still pretty dark and the shed had no lighting yet. It was sitting just at the edge of the roof line. I found the cutting rig and fired up the torch. I remember thinking that if anyone was standing nearby, I should say, "Stand back, this thing might blow up", cause I could smell gas fumes. So I stood back as far as I could, and waved the torch over the two and a half inch hole in the top of it. BOOM! I was soaked with water from the waist down, and the drum was gone! I looked over and saw it tumbling through the air at least twenty feet off the ground in the early morning light. Bobby was the first to come running up. Then Sam and Leo. But Sam wasn't running. He sorta crept up slowly. He must have known what happened. He was the one who put the water in it. Problem was, he didn't fill it all the way up, and it was a gasolene drum, not an oil drum. It was so dark I didn't notice it wasn't full. The fumes ignited and sent it up like a rocket! The bottom of the drum was still sitting on the ground. The roof panels were bent where it grazed them on the way up, if it had been further inside the shed it would have been a disaster. They said, What happened? I said, well, you wanted the top cut out, but I just blew the bottom out right quick instead. Someone gave me a ride home to get dry pants. I was working at "Baptist Hospital" at the time, doing metal stud & sheetrock work. I was late of course, and when I got there everybody was calling me, "Boom Boom". After that Bobby had someone go through the yard and determine which drums could still have gas in them, so something like that would never happen again. I could have easily been killed if I had started cutting it without testing it first. If I had blown a hole in it, it would have blown up in my face. I tried to explain this at the next safety meeting, but it didn't help much. Everybody still said I was an idiot. Written By: John Young