I'll be back.

It was just another day at work. I was working on a line crew as an apprentice lineman. We were rebuilding a transmission line outside of Athens, GA. Transmission lines are the electric lines with tall poles and the big wire that are built mostly cross country in the woods.

The whole crew was large, but it was split up into several 4 man crews. Two linemen would do the work on the pole and two men would work on the ground. On a job like this, we did basically the same work on one pole as we did on the next. As a result, we had some competition going with one of the other crews on which a good friend of mine worked. So we didn't waste any time getting up the pole when we got to the next one.

I had only been climbing poles for about a year. I still had the tools I bought at a pawn shop when I first started working. My "hooks" or "climbers" were not well designed and I had to remember to keep my knees away from the pole when I climbed. Otherwise, the gaff on the climbers would kick out of the pole and if you were lucky, you would only get a belly full of splinters. My tool belt was an old style belt that had the hammer loop in the middle of the back. Newer belts were made with the hammer loop over the hip. This was safer belt configuration if you "cutout" or your gaffs kick out of the pole and you fall. The safest way to climb a pole is to "hitch hike". That means you put your safety belt around the pole and lean into the pole and flip your safety belt up the pole as you climb. I had only seen old men climb that way. It was slow and most linemen just held onto the pole with their hands.

My friend on the other crew was an excellent lineman, but neither crew was out working the other that day. As soon as I got to the next pole, I put my tools on and started up the pole. I was about 40 feet up the pole and I remember looking out at the treetops. Then I was falling. As I fell, my body slowly rotated backwards. Then I hit the ground on my back and the breath was knocked out of me as I bounced into the air and landed on my face. I couldn't move and I was in a daze. I could sense a lot of rushing around by my crew mates and they began taking off my tools while someone got in a truck and went for help.

After a while, I heard an ambulance pulling up. They put me on a stretcher and loaded me in the ambulance. The road was a very rough woods road. The ambulance was an old hearse style ambulance. I could feel every bump in the road and acceleration of the ambulance in my back. When we got to the hospital, I remember still being in a daze. As I was pushed down the hall on a gurney, I could see the faces of people I knew leaning over me saying things that I don't remember. Later, I learned that I had fractured 3 vertebrae where my hammer in the middle of my tool belt was. Eventually, I recovered and went back to climbing poles. This time with new climbers and a new tool belt.