To draw a line under the ‘Ealth & Safety posts, and as a supplement to the common sense obituary, below is a clip to make anyone of an age hark back to the days of yore and also to a time before that other vast money-making ‘industry’ kicked off – good ol’ work-place training. Back to the days when individuals were left to figure stuff out for themselves and, occasionally, with guidance from their peers. I’m sure no better way to learn has yet been devised. What was the old saying? Engage brain to avoid pain?
Anyone around my age, an age when I occasionally create havoc in car parks if I have to reverse and when walking generally clutter-up town and city centres for no good reason, confuse bar staff, and myself, when attempting to order food from their pictogram menus and even somehow manages to make the countryside and shore-side look untidy just by being there, should be able to relate to this clip and wonder, as you do, where it all went so very wrong. In fact anybody over, what, fifty? should be able to relate the clip to jobs they took back in the day. This guy nails it for me. It says so very much in a very short clip.
Do I miss it all out there? I miss how it once was; I sure don’t miss how it now is.
If you feel I’m a tad cynical regarding modern day safety practices, and to ensure you return to your side of the Foggy Mirror with a smile, please go to that Stuff You May Like thingy on the left and scroll down to ‘Stay Safe!!’. Or click this to save unnecessary wear and tear on you mouse or track-pad.
Quote; Thomas A. Edison.
“I have friends in overalls whose friendship I would not swap for the favor of the kings of the world.”
2 comments:
"I wish to register a Near Miss in the Accident Book", said Bob.
We had recently been taken over by British Gas and their Suited Ones were busying themselves visiting the plants and depots now under their remit. They had black cars, sumptuous leather briefcases, and a general air of utterly unwarranted superiority. When they inspected our cylinder filling bay they were appalled to see Bob, minus any form of eye protection, charging cylinders. "What", they demanded, "do you do when you uncouple the filling valve and you get a brief squirt of liquefied gas?". Bob - a man of few words - closed his eyes momentarily the better to demonstrate the method which had seen him safely through over twenty-five years of unscathed and incident-free cylinder filling. "No, no, no, no", said the wise BG manager, "this will never do. You must wear this full-face helmet and plastic face guard. At all times". I apologised to Bob and asked him respectfully to acquiesce, in the short term at least, until they had gone. Meanwhile we were also told that in the New Era of the safety conscious work place, we must not only record actual incidents in the Accident Book, but also Near Misses, where something a l m o s t happened but not quite.
As I sat at my desk, wondering whether I would ever be able to get these fools out of my office or whether I would have to resort to the old 'fertiliser-bag-over-the -head-and-arms and bury the beggars on the moor' routine, I was saved by Bob who announced his presence at my office door (always propped open with a biscuit tin filled with hydrostatic relief valves) with the stentorian pronouncement above. It seemed that the full face helmet had steamed up with perspiration and he had tripped over a cylinder because he couldn't see it, his first near accident in a quarter of a century. I stared wordlessly at the soft palmed fools who were both engaged with tea and stickies. They didn't stay too much longer ...
Love it!
Ahh, ‘safety glasses’. How well I remember the time they reared themselves on our ugly heads ‘out there’!! One more cunning plan to restrict the use of another of our five survival senses. Hear no danger - see no danger. You’ve also triggered another safety related memory, from my time working on mans boats, which I’ll attempt to post tonight for your entertainment.
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