Transaction

It was not long after Guy was born - nineteen seventy two. Sonoma wanted a break, and she decided to go back east and visit her mother and brother still living at home. I was to take care of Guy by myself. No problem except I needed money. She gave me maybe three weeks notice. I had to find a job quick, to get the money to last the period of her stay, which was to be at least a month.

A friend Edwardo knew of a job over in the upper Haight. An exterior paint job of a three story Victorian. I showed up there the next Monday morning. They promptly sent me up three stories on a scaffold. I took a five gallon bucket, a roller and a brush. I rolled the paint on fast application - and brushed it out. The boss was impressed so I had the job. The psychology of these jobs is to make a good first impression. I learned that in the army. Kill on the first inspection and they don't bother you after that.

The boss was a young guy just out of college and a philosophy major. He said he liked this kind of work because he could yell. He did a lot of yelling at people as conversation not anger, because they were at some distance like yelling from the ground at someone on the roof. Said you can't yell in the philosophy world. That impressed me.

The big event of this job was the two man block and rope scaffold and pulleys called a fall, which I and another guy used to paint some of the back of house which was inaccessible to scaffolding.

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