Saturday Sharing! #15 Stories From My Past.

Good morning everyone on this cool and wet Saturday! It is cloudy, light drizzle and windy from the north. The temperature this morning was 34F (1C), but the high for today will be 34F (1C). Yep, no different. Actually, it has cooled off by one degree already. But the snow is nearly gone now, just patches left.

We had some thunderstorms yesterday, two of them gave us heavy downpours and that really washed away a lot of snow. The chorus of birds this morning when I went outside was just amazing! I haven’t heard that many birds singing and chirping for a very long time. Just being outside for a short time this morning made me think of times dad and I would go out looking for insulators in early spring, even on days like this.

This was a common insulator used here.

One year we were out walking along the railway tracks until we got to a place where we stopped the last time. Then up to the poles with all those colorful insulators that were used to hold telegraph wires. It was wet and cold that morning too, but we did not mind. Sometimes I think we were out of our minds on days like that. Dad said the same thing, only he said it at the time we were out.

But he still wanted to go. Very strange. “This is an easy spot to get up to the top of the hill,” I said. “This is easy?” dad inquired. “Sure, not hard at all,” I said and started up the hill. Dad followed, a safe distance behind me. It was wet, and I slipped. “Coming down!” I yelled. Dad did not hear me apparently and whump! I landed on top of him causing both of us to slide nearly down to the bottom of the hill.

“How come you are not dirty?” asked dad as he noticed his pants were covered with mud. “No idea,” I said, “but mud is always attracted to you.” “Only when you are around,” he mumbled. Not sure what he meant by that. We tried again, only dad went first. He made it and turned around to look for me. “Where are you?” he called.

This was another commonly used insulator and came in different colors.

“Behind you!” I yelled. Poor dad, he jumped right off the ground! “How did you get up here?” he asked. “I found an easier way over there,” I said, “also found some insulators on the ground over there.” “Bonehead,” said dad. That means he is enjoying himself. I think. He says that a lot anyway, so what else could it mean?

We found a spot where they had tossed a lot of old crossarms years ago, and they were full of insulators. I was on one end, dad on the other. He said that would be safer. Safer from what, I thought. I saw a purple insulator and reached down to get it. I leaned on a crossarm to do so and it pushed down, raising the other end, which hit dad on the forehead, which knocked his glasses off and they fell down deep into that pile of crossarms.

“My glasses!” screamed dad. He could be loud at times. “You are always losing those glasses,” I said. “Only when you are around,” he replied. “They will not be easy to reach,” I said, “have to move all these crossarms to get them.” “No, we might break them that way,” he said. I remembered something and got some string out of my backpack, tied a loop in it and lowered it down.

I hooked it around one of the arms of his glasses and pulled them up nice and easy. “Not bad,” said dad, “now do not lean on that crossarm again.” Hmm, how to get that purple insulator. I decided to move that crossarm out of the way, so I decided to lift my end, just as dad was about to lean on it on his end. Dad fell since the crossarm moved, and he hit his head again nearly losing his glasses again.

This one was used for telephone lines, the other two are telegraph insulators.

But he caught them. I went over to check on him. The one arm of his glasses kind of swung both ways now. “You should get that fixed,” I told him. “Bonehead,” he said, “I just had them fixed a month ago, remember?” “Yeah, you break them a lot,” I said. “I break them a lot?” asked dad. “That is what I just said,” I replied, “your hearing is getting bad.”

Dad just sighed and said it was time for coffee. Oh my, that was quite the time we had that day, and it is not over yet. But I am going to stop there anyway, it would take too long to tell it all. Maybe another time. Have a wonderful weekend everyone and God bless!

Steve and Muffin.

©2023 Steve McLeod.