On a comment thread somewhere I once saw a criticism of CrossFit.
The guy wrote: "Farmers's walk? You want to do the farmer's walk you can come to my farm and I'll give you something heavy to carry that actually needs to be carried and I'll even pay you for it."
Much more effective than just calling everyone a bunch of homos, I thought at the time.
I dropped out of college and did that for a few months and said screw this hard work and went back to college. One day, I was shoveling some mortar into a mortar pan on a ledge above me and the other laborer, a hard working alcoholic named Remus Dixon, was supposed to make sure it did not tilt over. Well he didn't and it fell back down on me and hit me in the back of the neck. The boss shrugged and said "eh let's go to lunch" and so we did.
One of the things my wife is tired of hearing me say is "People will compete at anything."
Hod carrying is at the top of the list.
We went to the Scottish games once and these guys were using a pitchfork to toss a burlap sack full of something or other over a crossbar like pole vaulting.
Now that I think about it, pole vaulting is pretty crazy all by itself.
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Definitely a hierarchy to that job, and like many the most skilled is the guy at the bottom.
I must be taking after dear ol' Dad, I just now realized I really enjoy watching people work hard.
On a comment thread somewhere I once saw a criticism of CrossFit.
The guy wrote: "Farmers's walk? You want to do the farmer's walk you can come to my farm and I'll give you something heavy to carry that actually needs to be carried and I'll even pay you for it."
Much more effective than just calling everyone a bunch of homos, I thought at the time.
Yep. Confirms what I believed when I was a home-builder: Being a mason tender is the hardest job in all of construction.
They set up everything, carry the bricks and blocks to the masons, make the mud and carry or throw it, clean the equipment at th4e end of the shift.
Then the next day they arrive on the job an hour before everyone else and do it all over again.
You never see any 40 year old mason tenders. They're all too worn out by that age to do the job.
I dropped out of college and did that for a few months and said screw this hard work and went back to college. One day, I was shoveling some mortar into a mortar pan on a ledge above me and the other laborer, a hard working alcoholic named Remus Dixon, was supposed to make sure it did not tilt over. Well he didn't and it fell back down on me and hit me in the back of the neck. The boss shrugged and said "eh let's go to lunch" and so we did.
Here is a famous photo I remember from looking at a Time/Life book when I was a kid.
I remember the little story that accompanied it.
The photographer asked the guy why he did what he did.
The guy answered, "Someone always has to carry bricks."
Nifty little story, irrespective of its accuracy.
One of the things my wife is tired of hearing me say is "People will compete at anything."
Hod carrying is at the top of the list.
We went to the Scottish games once and these guys were using a pitchfork to toss a burlap sack full of something or other over a crossbar like pole vaulting.
Now that I think about it, pole vaulting is pretty crazy all by itself.
Which is not to say that pole vaulting doesn't make a certain kind of sense.
Not quite as sexy, but maybe that's just me.
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