During those years, the General Foreman, on most of our transmission line jobs, in Indiana, was a man that I will just call Sam. Anyone, still living, who worked for Clifton Engineering Company, at that time, will know who I mean. Sam was nervous, impulsive, excitable and sometimes dangerous. The word “Very” would apply to each category.
One day the need arose for a large pipe wrench, so Sam took Dan with him and they went to town to get one. They stopped at a Hardware Store and Dan went in to see if they had a wrench like Sam wanted. It turned out that they had two sizes of large pipe wrenches, so Dan took one of each, out to see which one would suit Sam.
Sam looked at the wrenches and said, “Yeah, this is the one, give them a purchase order”, and drove off with the wrench, leaving Dan standing at the curb with the other wrench and no transportation. That didn’t bother Dan any because he knew Sam and things like that had happened before. After a while Sam realized that he had left Dan in town, so he went back and got him.