Uncredible - The Book (Sample 7)
Chapter 1 (continued)
The following is an excerpt from a short e-book I’m currently working on called, “Uncredible — The Book: The Art of Becoming Nobody.” In the future, content like this will be reserved for paid subscribers but, for now, please enjoy!
One MAN Left Standing (continued)
The temp agency quickly sent a replacement.
An older gentleman.
I don’t remember his name, but I distinctly remember the button-up denim shirt he wore every day. He seemed knowledgeable and had experience as a carpenter.
Of course, there was nothing particularly skilled about the work we were doing.
With nail guns and staple guns, we slapped together crates from cheap, crooked lumber to protect the steel cabinets we manufactured. We stacked chemical cabinets three high in trucks, separated only by sheets of plywood.
The job didn’t require the hands of a master carpenter.
But somehow, we’d found ourselves a carpenter.
By this point, the bet against me had shifted.
It was no longer:
How long will this kid last?
Now it was:
Can the new guy last longer than the kid?
I had slowly become “one of the guys” in this small, rugged manufacturing facility.
Still, they watched me closely, expecting me to fold. Hoping their bet would come true so they could say:
“I knew that kid wouldn’t last.”
The jokes only increased when my wife (fiancée at the time) would stop by from her hometown to visit me.
On hot summer days, she’d drive up on a Thursday or Friday and meet me for lunch. We’d sit together, eat, and talk while the guys watched from a distance.
I don’t need to repeat the kinds of jokes that come from a group of gruff, middle-aged factory workers watching an eighteen-year-old spend lunch with his smokin’ hot fiancée.
Let’s just say they wouldn’t qualify as business professional.
On one particularly hot summer day, we were rushing to build a crate around a large fume hood—the kind you find in a science classroom for chemical experiments.
It was expensive.
And we were behind schedule.
Working quickly, I used the swing saw with no guarding—the most dangerous piece of equipment I’ve ever seen in a factory—to cut lumber for the crate. Piece by piece, I tacked everything together with a large staple gun.
Then I heard screaming.
Not yelling.
Screaming.
I spun around.
The carpenter, only a few days into the job, was shouting profanities at the top of his lungs.
I rushed over.
“What happened?”
He couldn’t explain it.
He simply raised his hand.
Still screaming.
Then I saw it.
A three-inch nail protruded from the base of his thumb.
The nail guns had a tendency to double-fire.
I was always careful around them, largely because I had no experience using pneumatic tools.
Growing up, Dad only owned hand tools. We didn’t have air compressors, nail guns, or pneumatic equipment. Most of the work around our house and cars was done by hand.
Old-school farmer style.
Sure, we eventually acquired a few power tools, but I never had much opportunity to use them.
You might say I was uncredible.
The experienced guys, on the other hand, had used tools like these for years.
The nail guns were equipped with two safety mechanisms. The front safety had to be pressed firmly against the wood before the trigger would engage.
At least, that’s how they were supposed to be used.
But every safety feature eventually meets someone convinced they’re smarter than it.
The experienced workers would simply hold the trigger down and “tap” the front of the gun against the wood.
It was faster.
It was also dangerous.
When operated that way, the gun would sometimes fire once on impact and then fire a second nail on the recoil.
That’s exactly what happened.
The carpenter—who probably should have known better—caught the second nail.
It drove clean through the back of his thumb.
And just like that, his short career at Jamestown Metal Products was over.
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Music for voice over by Jeremusic70 on Pixabay.