JOHN HARVEY
Spanish Music.com
HARD WORK
My Grandfather didn’t stick around too long with the workers. He would see what they were doing but then he would go and check up ahead. He would see where they were going to take the fence. If we would get to a place where there was a whole bunch of brush he would say, “I have to get one of the guys to come cut the brush down with an ax and a rake to pull it away, pull it off to the sides to clear the path."
He usually got Tonito. He would say, ‘Tonito, get your ax and a rake and follow me up there. Tonito would say, “No pos si.” (No but yes) He always said that. He’d go along with my Grandfather. I think he would have him do that because it was a little easier and he was an older man now. He had white hair. He would give him the easier jobs.
Tonito would be cutting the branches with an ax. He’d get the rake and pull back all of the brush. It probably was easier then using a posthole digger. He’d have Tonito trim about 100 feet up and about 10 feet across to have room to move around and to put the wire and posts. Tonito always wore what he called ‘Polinus’. They were hard leather boot chaps that covered the boots and went up the legs. That was real helpful for doing clearing work.
See story The Old Men
Usually what had to be cleared was just
Then they’d come back and measure for the holes, where each hole was going to be. One of the guys would come with the posthole digger and say, “Okay where is the next post going to be, the last one is here, put it over there, move it to the left. Okay, right there.” And then he’d dig a little bit of a hole just to show where the other hole is. Now move up ahead to the next one. So then the guys coming up behind would know where to dig the next hole. They would get about 20 holes dug and then they’d put the posts in them. That was nice because they stopped digging and got into putting the posts into the holes, measuring, putting the dirt back in, using the shovel and the bar to move the dirt down into the hole.
Those guys were tough to be working like that in the hot sun, all day doing that. That’s tough. That’s very hard work. They’d get paid $5 a day. Nobody complained. That was the pay.
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