1990 Excerpt: Harlan Leddige, 1935-2020, Lumberjack
I worked with Harlan at the toy factory for about ten years. He was quite the guy.
Originally published in the Roseau Times-Region in 1990
Start from scratch. Stick to common sense. Know your goals and means. —Achille Castiglinoni
Tales of Paul Bunyan
ReplyDeleteHarlan and I had the distinct notoriety of ever being the two people who evacuated the whole toy factory i.e., welding, machining, and watercraft assembly line one evening, purely on the premise it was going to blow up because one of the construction crew excavating the NE of the plant had jut broken a natural gas line with a backhoe. I had never seen Harlan, a rather big man, run toward me waving his arms and yelling, "GET OUT! GET OUT! GET EVERYBODY OUT! THEY JUST BROKE A GAS LINE! GET OUT!"
ReplyDeleteBeing a rather impressionable young man at that point in my life, I followed suit so we both ran and waved our arms and yelled to everyone we saw, "GET OUT! GET OUT! GET EVERYBODY OUT! THEY JUST BROKE A GAS LINE! GET OUT!" running the whole length of the assembly line, up and over the assembly line (several times, the bugger was long)(and we both were younger then) effectively convincing everyone their lives were in danger, including those smokers who loved every opportunity to get out for a smoke at a minute's notice, (they proved equally tough to get back in) -- and successfully evacuated the whole place, saving everyone's life...
Neither of us paused to think that it was very likely that management knew there were gas lines in the vicinity of the excavation and had shut them down weeks before it was initiated. Harlan had observed the line break himself and reacted in a moment of self-preservation and its wild potential danger to others; I just followed his lead, preferring to err on the side of caution than ignore his dire warnings. Management wasn't so understanding.
Harlan's last name is pronounced 'Led eh ghee'
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