One of the first guys that we hired, Gordon, had a definite Mr. Magoo quality about him. He didn’t start right away as he had been finishing up a job for another fellow here in town. But he made his presence known right from the start. We have drywall ladders that see double duty as saw horses. They are made of aluminum and are about 3 feet high, and three feet wide. Shortly after Gordon started he was cutting some lumber and was using the drywall ladders as support. Soon the awful sound of a saw cutting through metal could be heard all over the site. Heads were popping up everywhere to see what was happening. When it didn’t stop, Gary began to search out the source. He found Gordon merrily cutting some plywood and incidentaly the ladder at the same time. Gary stopped him and he was quite surprised to learn that he hadn’t been sawing just the wood. Couldn’t he hear the aluminum being cut? "I’m a little deaf". Oh. When asked if he didn’t notice how difficult it was to cut this particular piece of plywood, he didn’t and after all, you can cut through wooden sawhorses, why not this one?
It turns out that hearing wasn’t the only sense that Gordon didn’t have full capacity of. We soon learned that he couldn’t see very well either. Gary was hanging a plumb bob to make sure one of the walls was plumb. He was on the top of the wall and Gordon was below, his job was to see if the bob was where it should be. After Gary dropped the bob, he waited a bit and then asked Gordon how it looked. Gordon asked how what looked? And Gary told him the bob that was hanging inches from his face? Sorry can’t see it "I can’t see very well". Then came the famous squint that we all became familiar with as he located the bob.
The squint, you’d be working with Gordon and ask for a measurement or something, and he’d lean inches away from the tape, or the mark or whatever, squint his eyes and peer for several seconds before you’d get his answer. You’d be wise to ask for the measurement a second time, just to see if he interpreted the blur the sameway twice.
Gordon was a good worker though but didn’t really care for working outside at -35. When the opportunity came up for a job that was inside he took it. His specialty was drywall and painting, and now is when we could really use him. It would be good to hear those words of his now. "Can I hit it now? Now? How about now?"