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First Job of Bob - Dairy Farm - Part VII - Never lost a digit; Dad could kill you with just a look
This entry was posted on 12/15/2010 1:30 AM and is filed under Jobs of Bob.
Fate I suppose, does not always mean a moment of epiphany or near miss. I believe it can also be a culmination after a period of time. My experience working on the farm from 12 to 18 years old was significant not for near misses with fate. But rather, that time was significant for being devoid of physical trauma. Marshfield Hospital and Clinic still to this day devotes resources to agricultural trauma. This in a time where the technology and culture of safety has greatly improved since I was a kid. While my neighbors and classmates were braking bones, losing fingers, toes, limbs, and even lives, my farm experience was relatively uneventful concerning injuries. This stretch of safety I attribute to one man and one man only - my father. He constantly hounded both me and my uncle on the culture of farm safety.
Dad called me "Bub." "Bub, don't touch that." "Bub, look the hell out." "Bub, don't let me catch you removing that safety shield from the power-take-off." "Remember Bub, you only have one set of arms and legs."
In those days, we did not have the potential to have body parts sown back on like today's workers might if lucky. So safety had a finality about it. My Dad understood finality as he had been in Africa during World War II. A mistake there, so far from the "news headline" war, most likely resulted in death or worse.
An egregious foray into recklass shenanigans would be met with not a verbal diatribe from my father but rather...a death glance. That look no doubt he acquired in the war zone in Africa. Once you saw it, you would never forget it. Every dead soldier, every emissary from hell that those eyes had seen poured out. Others had seen that glance; yet, I suspect my mother never had. Those of us men and boys - family, friends, farmers - that worked with him knew it well, and to my knowlege, no one ever tested it. Everyone of us kept our digits and limbs.
Equipment did indeed come with shields, safety guards, and safety devices in the 1950s and '60s, but they often were removed because they were quite frankly, often in the way. You would need to have been there I suppose. But, multiple equipment from different companies and eras was often needed to be attached to each other - filling silo, bailing hay, harvesting grains, etc. often took several attached pieces of equipment. The various safety devices often collided, rattled, or made the work go harder. Dad was not one to remove a piece of safety equipment, but sometimes it would disappear. Dad would then harp ad nauseam about being careful around that compromised machinery.
There were not too many old farmers around the neighborhood that were not missing a finger or two, or worse. I worked on the ambulance in central Green County with a retired farmer who drove for us. He was missing at least four and a half digits total between both hands. Now there is poetry, an ambulance driver whose fingers had been lopped off in various farm accidents. All he said to me one day was, "Damn corn picker jumped out and grabbed my fingers; I put my fingers where they shouldn't have been..."
I have all my fingers and toes as did my Dad. His warnings served me well in my combat unit in the Army; during my landscape maintenance days (enough junky equipment to de-finger an army of men); and, more recently in Laos doing research, and then in Iraq as a journalist.
His voice was constantly hounding me over there in Iraq, "Jesus Bub, watch the hell what you are doing."
In my crappy blue-collar Great Recession job in a media production plant, potential injury lurks in every nook and cranny, especially working in the middle of the night tired and sometimes sick. Not a night goes by on that graveyard shift that I don't think of my dad and his caveats and observations...and sometimes...even that death glance.
Note: This blog "Jobs of Bob" Category does not list the jobs chronologically - I write about the experiences as they pop up in my memory and I often revisit an older job. Go to the Cooldadiomedia Web site and the Jobs of Bob Page for an ordered chronology.
Wisconsin Military Service Person Special Mention of the Week
(each week Cooldadiomedia mentions a Wisconsin service person killed in Iraq or Afghanistan)
Sergeant Tyler Joseph Kritz, 21, Eagle River, Wisconsin, died on Sunday, June 3, 2007 in Thania, Iraq. He died when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle. Kritz was assigned to Battery B, 1st Battalion, 37th Field Artillery Regiment, 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division out of Fort Lewis, Washington. He was one of four soldiers killed in the incident. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel noted Kritz was deployed to Iraq in June 2006 with his military unit He was promoted to sergeant posthumously. Tyler was a 2003 graduate of Northland Pines High School in Eagle River. He planned his enlistment into the Army in his senior year. During high school he Kritz played on the football team as a defensive back. He is remembered for his humility, drive, politeness, soft-spoken manner, and his ability to get along with people. The data base for war casualties iraq.pigstye.net mentioned via information from The Rhinelander Daily News that Tyler was on his second deployment to Iraq. Also, he was a few weeks from his 22 birthday. The Rhinelander Daily News quoted information from Tyler's MySpace site: "I'm always listening to music; I play bass guitar, or at least try to. I like to try new stuff because consistency is boring. I love to travel and explore even if it's just walking around town." The Web site rhinelanderdailynews.com also posted several other articles relating to Tyler Kritz that mentioned he was born June 29, 1985, in West Bend, Wisconsin. Sergeant Kritz was posthumously awarded a bronze star and a purple heart for bravery. At the time of his death Tyler Kritz was survived by his parents, Joe and Doreen Kritz of Eagle River; sister, Marcia (Ian) Cira of Milwaukee; and paternal grandmother, Doris Penzich of Cedar Grove. Sergeant Tyler Kritz was the 76th Wisconsin military service person to be killed in Iraq since the spring of 2003.
As of this blog entry's posting date:
99,021 Iraqi civilians have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
9,796 Iraqi Security Forces have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
4,432 Americans have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
1426 Americans have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
318 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
830 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
32,000 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
9,675 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
103 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
27 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
145 journalists (several nationalities) have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
21 journalists (various nationalities) have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
Wisconsin military service person special mention of the week, military casualty, and journalist casualty information sources: Committee to Protect Journalists; cnn.com; Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; washingtonpost.com; thehighground.org; Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs; iraqbodycount.org; www.defense.gov/news/casualty.pdf; and, icasualties.org.
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