Sweaty Grunt

When I was 17, I went to work for a power line construction company. A crew consisted of a foreman, linemen, apprentices, equipment operators and grunts. The grunts were the entry level jobs and they were called grunts because they did all the heavy lifting and hard work. Grunt was also a derogatory name that the crew members who had "paid their dues" called us. I was a grunt and as a result, I sweated profusely everyday from the hard work. I can remember sweating while working in 8 degree weather one winter in north Georgia. It was the equipment operator's responsibility to fill up a 10 gallon water can with ice and water every morning. On the side of the water can was an attachment to hang a container that dispensed salt tablets. I would take them by the handfuls. Since then salt tablets seem to have disappeared.

I read an article in the Post and Courier this morning that brought these memories back. You can read it here. It caught my eye because it would have been useful to have some BANa when a family member was sick recently and became dehydrated. She eventually had to go to the hospital to recover. The first thing they usually do in such a situation is to administer an IV. In the P&C article a Charleston doctor had a light bulb moment and wondered why there wasn't an IV equivalent that could be taken orally. As a result, he created BANa. This idea of replacing electrolytes has taken a long time to evolve from taking handfuls of salt tablets to the safer Gatorade to BANa. It still has some controversy associated with these electrolyte replacing drinks, so as they say, consult your physician first. It would have been great to have Gatorade when I was a grunt.