desperados

construction is filled with desperate men. desperate for money, running from personal problems, running away, and in my case running towards something. drunks, dopers, racists, wife beaters, psychos, liars, thiefs, born again christians, preachers, wetbacks, washouts who couldn't make it in the real world, pretenders, want a be's, the toothless. lots of these desperadoes are talented, intelligent as well as lazy, bullies, cheats and generally no one you would ever hang out with off the job. I never did. at the end of the day i'd climb in my truck and say "later", and drive off and shake my head, telling myself did you just see that, can you believe that? It was a rough and tumble world and an a easy one to navigate if you were big and strong and could take care of yourself or at least look like you could. it was never boring, you never knew what was going to happen, part of that being the nature of the work changed constantly, unforseen problems on the job site made it almost impossible to predict the days outcome. remarkably I found that the worst characters, the truly dispicable, the sleazy drunk, racist, wife beater, liar, cheat, was the best man for the job, the coolest head out there, the wise man. my ticket to respect in this world was my strong back and big heart. i could outwork three men, i made my bosses money and they knew it, i was a glimmer in their eye and maybe, just maybe I would end up being as bad as they were, although to hear them talk, they were virtous and god fearing men. A tell tale sign to watch out for was the inevitable bible in the truck. i'd seen it many times sitting on the front seat, a well worn book for effect, just after getting shorted twenty bucks for the week. if pressed why i was getting shorted they'd call it the cost of doing business. i'd call it thievery. that's how things went out there. on one hand it was thrilling, surrounded by all these pirates and wild men, at one point I named us the killer gypsys, yet beware, it could all turn on you in a moment over anything, politics, a bad hangover, someone coming down from a meth high and you'd have to fight or run. jgk