Now this is old school, before most of you werent even messing your diapers yet. These are some pics of Don Kilgore (Tower Maintenance Specialist, Toledo, Ohio) and his brother back in the 50s painting guy wires on Ch 50 up in Detroit. Don worked towers his whole life, at least over 50 years. He painted ATT SS towers with a brush when they were first being built. Don always used aluminum angle and stainless hardware for whip and dish mounts on broadcast and he would climb almost non stop, just paced himself. No harness, almost never, a belt to carry his paint. I mean a couple of split barrels, tied together, riding blocks down a guy wire with somebody lowering you both on one rope.....think about it! I dont want to offend any of you young safety Nazis but this is the way it was done, ingenuity and guts. He passed away awhile back and I can say I was very proud to of known him. He was an inspector on many of my paint projects through the 80s and early 90s. Man was he a pain in the ass, quite set in his ways and a sticker for details but he always praised my work and even gave me a letter of reference. One morning I stepped out of my trailer at 7:00 with coffee in hand ready to start another day of spraying out Ch 7 also in Detroit. Don was riding down in the elevator, had inspected what I had done, climbed out, walked across the field to meet me. Good afternoon he said....LOL.......I sure miss him sometimes. WHOOP!!
Posted on: Sun, 25 Jan 2015 08:07:00 +0000