I was a big iron connector for 8 years. I got lucky and big iron construction was in full swing in memphis tn. when i started working with local 167 in 2000 it was great. i was 22and full of piss n vinegar. lucky i'm not dead, i fell 20' ish onto concrete between two 8' #12 rebar set for a door way they were building in 2001. had a full rigging belt on with about 50lbs of tools and bolts in it. God was with me for real. Doc said i should have at least had a broke back and a couple of broken legs, but no just a chipped ankle. In late 2003 i started connecting on boiler house buildings for highly advanced coal burning power houses. It wasn't uncommon for a man to cry or quit because they got scared when we went to setting the big steel. It is a different world when you get out of range of the lifts and ladders. The cranes were huge it wasn't uncommon to be able to pick 30,000lbs on the whip line a football field and a half away. Somedays i really miss it. I spent most of my adult youth doing it, being it is a better way to say it. You aren't trained to be an iron worker, you are born an iron worker. some days i miss chasing that hook, listening to the iron ring, the impacts bang, the foremen cuss, fighting on the iron, working with felons, loners, and the guys that make dewbs nervous about their wife just standing around them. I miss the money sometimes. when i quit to climb trees my package out west was $48ish an hour plus ot and there was always ot. if i could hang big iron all day with a banger crew in the same city for good pay and a nice bennies package would I? i have been asked that question a lot. it is one that i really can't answer. i feel God answered some of my prayers with being a self employed climbing arborist. i'm not as lonely, i drink a whole lot less, I fight a whole lot less, I quit having girlfriends in every town i went to with empty promises and broken hearts left behind at the end of every job and settled down and got married, i can visit my family anytime i want, i can take time off when i want, sometimes i make money, sometimes i just pay the bills, i like watching things grow and learning how to be a little softer everyday, not like a punk soft, but just a bit less high strung and less volatile, and i still get to get my kicks at least three days a week. All that said I still don't know that steel gets in your blood. and by the way the crew i worked on at shurtleff & andrews would out hang those morons on that iron world show all day long, our worst day verses their best day, any day of the week! just sayen'. they aren't even good tv! t.v. won't go where the real action is, for real. peace Former J.I.W. local 84 houston tx; apprentice of the year 2004 houston tx; rockstar phone man connector rigger for S&A, also known as short life and ambulance; Jeff mf'n Cochran also known as tommy cochran, tommy the nine nails, tommy nine lives, cocky cochran and a plethora of unutterable cuss words
