In 2020, I found myself laid off because of covid. The hall was putting calls out for the soccer stadium, so I decided to take the job. The consensus about the job was it was not somewhere you wanted to take a call. After being laid off for 2 years during the housing market crash of 2008, I thought it best to work as much as I could before the whole world shut down. Along with the rest of the world I was concerned of what I might bring home to my family due to working outside the house. Wearing a mask made it hard to understand my Foreman and my safety glasses would steam up so it was hard to see But the fear of bringing a deadly virus home to my children kept these two items firmly on my face. There were so many uncertainties. Doubt was a constant, was working the right choice? How long would this last? Was i killing myself?

As much as I hated heights, when I found out I would be hanging stadium lights, I was thrilled. Working in a 150-foot boom lift seemed like the definition of social distancing. The negativity in the crew that I was working with was immense. A truth that spans all worksites is the job is that much harder when you don’t get along with the people you are with. I was determined to make it through. Fortunately, things started to click between me and a couple of the guys in the crew.

Like any job, there were ups and downs, but you learn to take the good with the bad. People were going home left and right because of COVID, but I felt safe out on the soccer field. For the first part of the job, I worked with another Journeyman named Rich. He too was having a hard time with what was going on in the world. Rich had a positive outlook and always had a good story or a joke to tell to keep the morale up. After all the conduit was run, Rich got transferred to another crew.

It was time to hang the stadium field lights and I had a new tool buddy. Brent was a young country boy, and he was strong as an ox. We were the brute strength of the crew. The stadium lights were big, bulky and weighed over 100 pounds. Ultimately, Brent and I were the only ones who could hang them. We were working 10-hour days at the time. After a few weeks of heavy lifting, we were worn out. Just out of the blue Brent starts singing in a country twang,” Just swinging… In a basket… high in the air… With my pal Jimmy!” I just chuckled and told Brent, “You’re not right, kid.” Deep down, I wasn’t right either, but I couldn’t let on to that.

We were making good progress on the stadium lights, but as I said, the deadline was coming near.

For the month of August,we worked on those lights without a day off, working 12 hour shifts. The days began to run together. 

The last Sunday morning of our shift, I stepped onto the the field and it was already sweltering. The entire crew was mentally and physically drained. I felt like I was awake in a dream, so when the soccer ball rolled up to me, I rubbed my eyes a little. I looked around and no one was there. Most trades had the day off. My crew was there to finish up the stadium lights so that the field could be prepped for sod.

It was time for work. Before I hopped on my lift, I kicked the ball as hard as I could. I smiled at the thought of the ball being passed around the rest of the day, reminding us all not to take life so seriously.

I’ll see you on the next one