MY BROTHER NEVER COULD HOLD A JOB
(I really don't know why)
Screen 1 of 3My brother was handsome, smart and charming, but he could never hold a job. It's a sad story.
Our first jobs for real pay--15cents an hour--were as water boys on a general construction job in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Each of us carried a bucket of water--cold when ice was available, along with a tin dipper tied to the handle, to workmen, wherever they were on the job. Some were digging ditches with picks and shovels; others were pouring concrete, laying stone, or doing carpentry and plaster work.
Not long after we started working on this job, the boss began to complain about my brother--his name was Will Gooch--not making his rounds regularly. He would sometimes ask me where he was, but most of the time I didn't know, since we did not make our rounds together.
One day the boss became quite angry when he could not find Will Gooch. "He must be sleeping somewhere," he said to me. "Or maybe he went down to the general store to buy candy," he added in irritation. "When I find him, I'll fire him," he threatened as he walked away in disgust.
I really did not know where my brother was, but I did not believe he was loafing or "sleeping somewhere." Since I also wanted to find him, I followed the boss as he searched various places on the job.
When we approached the area where the large blocks of cut limestone were stacked, I saw Will Gooch talking to the foreman in charge of identifying and moving the pieces of stone to be used in the walls of the building. Then we both heard the foreman say, "Gooch, find the block of stone numbered 191 and send it over to that corner of the building. And hurry up; we need it now."
The boss was surprised at what he had heard the foreman say, but when he then heard my brother's response he was dumbfounded.
"Number 191 block is not the correct one for that corner, Mr. Elrod," Will Gooch said with an air of confidence. "The blueprint here calls for number 157 for that place." With this, the foreman checked the blueprint spread on a box before them and agreed that #157 was the right one.
"What are you doing over here bothering this foreman ? " the boss asked my brother. "Why aren't you carrying your bucket of water to the men on the job?" Before Will Gooch could answer, the stone foreman said quickly to the boss, "Oh, Mr. Banks, don't blame him. I asked him to help me. Gooch can read these blueprints very well-about as fast and accurately as my assistant can do it. How about just leaving him here to work with me? It will be a big help. You know we're behind on getting these stones in place."
"Why that's ridiculous, paying a twelve year old boy to read blueprints!" Mr. Banks exclaimed. "We would have to raise his pay to 35 cents an hour, and besides, that would leave us with only one waterboy."
"Well, let's do it, Mr. Banks," Mr. Elrod answered enthusiastically with a smile. "Gooch is worth it, and Chester there is a dependable, hard working waterboy. He can keep the men watered." (I didn't miss or disagree with that comment about me being dependable and hard working.)
That seemed to settle it. Mr. Banks was persuaded, and my brother lost his job as a waterboy!
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