Let me preface this whole entry by stating: I am not a snob. Not really. I'll talk to anyone. I can find something positive and good about almost everyone. I am not shy, either.
I work at an excavation company. There is one other woman who works with me. The other 18 employees are guys. They range in age from 18 to over 40. Most are right around my age, which is 38 this month. In fact, 3 of them graduated from Brighton in 1984 while I graduated from Howell in 1984. Brighton and Howell are adjoining towns and fiercely rival.
I went on to college. They started work at the excavation company and married their high school sweethearts, while I am on husband No. 2. I like to think I have seen a bit of the world. (That sounds like I am going around the world with husbands, but that's not how I mean it.)
However.....I am very well-liked by the guys and am very fond of them in many ways, although they are like children. After all, these are guys who play with real live Tonka dozers and big trucks. They would do anything for me, get me out of jail, pull my truck out of a ditch, my driveway gets plowed for free when it snows and looks damn nice in the summer with free gravel and grading.
That said.
Women think I work with a bunch of guys like on the old Diet Coke commercial with the super buff cute construction worker guy, or these sensitive enlightened New Age type guys who operate a Terex Dump Truck during the day and compose poetry at night, which they put to melodies they have written on their guitars.
This is not the case.
Most of these guys' wives will not let them touch a computer since they will inevitably crash it. They don't do laundry, cook in any manner or read for entertainment.
They fish, they hunt, they buy fix-em-up houses and remodel and sell, they watch NASCAR.
This is not to say they aren't nice guys or that they are stupid. They are all nice and many of them are quite intelligent. I am very fond of them, I sometimes think of them my as First Graders. They can be very needy. It's nice to be needed.
But they are not these Romantic Renaissance guys. Ain't a one of them writing poetry, trust me. I have been known to buy birthday cards and send flowers for them.
I am sure somewhere, there is a hard hat/work boots guy who writes poetry in his spare time. I just don't know of any, personally.
Those are the kind of people where you do not have to look at the position of the sun when they say to you, "Good morning." The best humans on earth are found amongst those who are untainted by the corruption that wealth and power often bring. Here's to the "grunts". *clink*
Posted by: Duplex Dude | July 16, 2004 at 10:38 PM