Steve`s Country
For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
Coffee For Friday. #30
Good morning on this snowy Friday! It is just snowing lightly and we have another inch of new snow on the ground. That gives us 7 inches (17.5cm) now. We might still get another inch of snow today though it does not look like that will happen. Which is fine with me. Well, back to our story and the final part today. After we had our coffee break it began to snow, quite heavily.
But Dad was determined to get more insulators before we returned home. And there were only a few more poles to check anyway, then they get too tall for us to reach. It really was going quite nicely, the insulators were easy to remove. That is, until the next pole which had a purple insulator on it. All the other insulators came off easily, but that purple one did not budge. I tried and tried, but nothing happened. “Stand still,” I said to dad.
“There are rocks down here and they keep moving,” he replied. Finally he moved too much which caused me to lose my balance. I grabbed the crossarm but my right foot kicked dad on the side of the head. He yelled and bent over a bit and I wobbled more and stepped on Dad’s head, quite hard. He yelled again and sat down in the snow. I fell and landed next to him just as he removed his glasses. When I bumped into him he dropped his glasses into the snow and I landed on top of them.
Quite amazing really, but no harm was done to the already broken glasses anyway. Dad’s nose was bleeding, so was his ear. “You sure hurt yourself a lot,” I said. “Only when you are around,” he replied. I am not sure what he meant by that. “I guess that means we should go home,” I said. “I want to get that purple insulator,” he said, “so you will have to try again.” I sighed. Up I went again once the bleeding stopped. It was still snowing heavily. “It is getting hard to see very far,” I mentioned.
“Minor detail,” said dad. I had a piece of rubber in my backpack which I brought up with me this time. It worked, and that insulator finally came off. “Here it comes,” I said. “Ready,” said dad. “Here it comes,” I repeated. Dad looked up. Then his eyes got big and he scrambled to catch the insulator. He dropped it. And it hit one of the rocks which was now showing through the snow because of our tumbling around previously. I could hear the breaking glass. I came down.
“Why did you say that twice?” asked dad. “The first time was just to see if you were ready, when you said you were, then I said it again so you would know it was coming,” I said. Dad just looked at me. “Bonehead,” he said. “Looks like a hundred pieces of glass,” I said, “too bad, it was in perfect condition too.” Dad was looking at the broken pieces. I am sure he sighed a half dozen times over that one. We did get a purple one off the next pole, but it had some chips, not perfect like the other one.
Then we headed home. It was still snowing heavily and there was already about 5 inches of new snow. Probably 6 inches by the time we got back to the car. When we got back home, mom spotted the broken glasses. She shook her head and said, “you really should be more careful.” The look on dad’s face! I laughed loud and long. Well, I do hope you enjoyed this little adventure this week. We will have another adventure next week, but shorter next time. Happy Friday everyone and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
©2022 Steve McLeod.
Steve`s Country 
Wow! What a story! I’m sorry the insulator got broken, but glad the injuries were not more serious. My dad had a bunch of those, at one time. He worked for the phone company (ATT/MaBell) for about fifty years.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hi Jeff! Yes, we did have our times, but not all our adventures were quite so eventful as this one. Working for the phone company would be a great way to get some insulators! My dad started to collect them after seeing a display of them at a restaurant. It took a couple years, but he finally got me interested in them too. Have a great day! 😃😺❄️☕☕🎄
LikeLiked by 1 person
It’s snowing heavily today in Austria where I’m on holiday
LikeLiked by 1 person
That would be a nice place to visit. Is it very cold there? 🤔😺
LikeLiked by 1 person
It was -16C overnight but it has warmed up a bit though not above 0C during the day. However, it’s a dry cold.
LikeLiked by 1 person
A dry cold isn’t quite so bad, that is about what we are getting right now, but colder is coming.
LikeLiked by 2 people
🥶 ⛄️ ❄️
LikeLiked by 1 person
I enjoyed this story of you and your dad’s escapades immensely. I just wonder if the electric company is still wondering why the poles keep catching on fire, or it they replaced the insulators!??
😂 ‘Course, just teasing. I had a friend in Iowa who would collect these from defunct poles… yours WERE from unused poles, right!?
❤️&🙏, c.a.
LikeLiked by 1 person
These were all old telegraph insulators. No, the poles were still being used a little, though not much by then. Amazingly telegrams were still being sent that way in the 1970s along railroads.
But as I mentioned earlier, we had permission to remove the unused insulators if they had no wires attached and we did not climb the poles. That is why I stood on dad’s shoulders all the time. Of course now it is illegal to even walk along railroad right of ways. All the poles and insulators were taken down in the 1990s anyway. 😃😺❄️❄️☕☕
LikeLiked by 1 person
There is nothing like a dad and Steve adventure collecting insulators and having bonding time! 😀
LikeLiked by 1 person
We really did have some great times! 😃😂😹❄️❄️❄️☕☕
LikeLiked by 1 person
🤣😂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you Steve. You and your dad made it through a few adventures.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yep, we had lots of them. But most were actually quite normal with only minor problems. But some it seems just had a lot happen! They make the best stories! 😂😹❄️❄️☕☕
LikeLike
😂😂😂 I know , I shouldn’t laugh ! But it makes for goo reading ! That purple one must have been beautiful ! Your pics are lovely really ! 📷😻🙂🎄
LikeLiked by 1 person
Of course you should laugh! It wouldn’t be right not to! It was a nice one, that purple insulator. Thank you so much, have a good night! 😃❄️❄️☕☕🌛😴😴
LikeLike