Old Guys Rock!

I had volunteered to do some concrete work for a new friend, Natividad. He is doing a basketball court in his backyard. I had talked to him about the mechanics of doing the court so it would turn out great and didn’t end up becoming a volunteer disaster. So this meant that I jumped in and helped organize a couple of groups to help dig out and set up the court. This translated into me showing up early on a Saturday morning and setting up the forms for the court. I showed up early and got the forms up and was thinking that maybe Natividad didn’t have any volunteers coming.

Just as I’m finishing with the last board and starting to string a line for grade a group of 20 somethings appear and they start shoveling and wheeling ABC to fill up the court so it would be ready for pouring. This was actually a lot of fun to watch some guys and girls work together to help get the pad ready. My new friend, Natividad, I’m trying to explain it’s one thing to have some muscle power in wheeling sand to grade the pad but it’s the not the same when it comes to wheeling concrete and actually finishing the court. He says he’s got this older guy, George, who can help out and that will be enough. I try to tactfully tell Navi that it takes guys with some real muscle power and ability to do 12 yards of concrete.

I talk to George who is an older guy who had been a concrete contractor most of his life. It was a pleasure to connect and figure out that it would be best to have my concrete friends help out and not make this a volunteer nightmare. So George goes on another Saturday to lay out the wire mesh and also pour the base for the basketball pole. I’m impressed when I go by and see the wire placed just right and the pole embedded in concrete.

I get into a little disagreement with Navi about why we have to do this on Friday and not a Saturday when there could be a bunch of people to help. I attempt to enlighten Navi about the need for real concrete workers and the reality that George confessed to the fact that he was 70 plus and couldn’t finish this without a few other guys besides me that know what they are doing. So we hit a compromise and we decide on a Friday at noon so I can have my concrete friends help so we get the best result in the end.

I show up an hour early and am pleasantly surprised to see George and two other grandpa types ready to help with doing the pour. I don’t say anything to these guys initially until the concrete truck shows up 20 minutes early and it is obvious that this is the crew for wheeling 12 yards of concrete. I give the evil stare to Navi to ask where are his young buff helpers to do the wheeling. These guys can help with getting it down but shouldn’t be wheeling. I’m a little concerned but the concrete is here and we have the wheelbarrows and now these old bodies so let’s do it. We start and I laugh at the fact that Navi gets a ½ wheelbarrow along with the old guys. Fortunately my other concrete friend can do full wheelbarrows along with me.

It usually would take about 30 minutes to get down 6 yards of concrete with a few guys wheeling that know what they were doing. I figure we will get it down. Yet, as we get going, one of the grandpas trips and falls after dumping his wheelbarrow.  Next, Navi proceeds to let the driver wheel and he oversees the filling up the wheelbarrow but mixes up a couple of different of toggle switches and ends up overfilling 2 wheelbarrows and makes a huge mess.

Now I have to quit wheeling and start tamping and bull floating. So just as my concrete bud is ready to scream because of it taking too long to wheel the concrete a few re-enforcements show up. Again I should have told Navi that he needed to have 20 somethings not 60-70 somethings doing the hard work. Yet, as we finish the first truck the guys seem to get a burst of energy and we get the second truck emptied out rather quickly. I’m now tamping out the last part of the court and my concrete bud finishes bull floating.

I’m taken back by how my old guys jumped in and do clean up like pros and do the little things, like clean my tamp and sweep off the sidewalks which had been messed up by wheeling. All of a sudden I’m thankful for the old guys who truly care about what they are doing. I tell my concrete bud he can split because George, the old guy, can help me finish out with doing the edges. I know that my concrete partner would say any good concrete guy can finish 10 yards by himself if there aren’t any joints.

I’m impressed with George who has a smile on his face as he is on his knees troweling the edges making them look awesome. The other grandpas had finished cleaning everything up and stacked and organized everything else. Navi has long sense died and disappeared into the house to recover from having a stroke or dying from heat stroke or something. He had met his match with these old guys who totally rocked when it comes to helping with a job. They showed up early and stayed late. All of the young guys didn’t show up. Also I had tried to explain to Navi that you always tell your help to come an hour early so even if they are late they arrive on time.

As I finished up brooming the court and George finishes the edges, I knew I had a new friend. Concrete guys bond while they are in the wet cement and also when they are on their hands and knees making the concrete look old as we say. I want to repent for thinking that these old guys couldn’t cut it. The one grandpa that tripped jumped back into the action and wheeled the rest of the load. I can’t say the same thing for Navi. I know that God doesn’t believe in retirement or disappearing from the action. Yet, we live in a society where most people right off anyone over 50 and a 70 or 80 year old is consider a fossil. I hope I can get down on my knees like George when I’m in my 70’s. Yes – old guys rock!