Saturday's Old Photo: Better Than Disneyland

That’s what you’d call a big hauler. Don’t ask me for specifics; I think it’s a Caterpillar. [Update: Silly me. I know nothing. The photo above is the kids playing on some miscellaneous piece of mining equipment. Okay, it’s a giant loader.] The littlest guy at the bottom is youngest son; climbing the ladder is youngest daughter; and on the platform are their two cousins and uncle.

[The big hauler is below, and it is, as you can see, Lectra Haul. Unfortunately you can’t see the whole thing because the photo was taken indoors and up close.] At the time this photo was taken, it was the biggest dump truck anywhere except for a few used in Russia, but it has since then been surpassed a few times over by others.

 

Uncle Greg works as a mine electrician for what was, at the time of the photo, the National Steel Pellet mine in Keewatin, Minnesota. Since then, another company’s taken it over, but I know less about that than I do about the truck. All those years when I knew my brother-in-law worked as an electrician at a mine, I didn’t understand that this meant he worked on these trucks. After all, in my experience, electricians wire outlets and change breaker boxes.

On that thrilling evening ten years ago or so, Uncle Greg took us on a tour of the open pit taconite mine where he worked. Not many people get to tour (It takes special arrangements.), so even his own kids were getting their first—and only, I’m betting—tour of their father’s workplace.

What we didn’t know (and neither did Greg) was that his boss and the drivers of those big trucks had planned a surprise for us all. Greg and his visitors got rides in the trucks, two at a time, around to pick up a load and back to dump it.

My husband was more excited than anyone. Kids take experiences like that in stride; so many things are new to them that they can’t distinguish once-in-a-lifetime from just-for-the-first-time. Youngest son was as pleased to be wearing a hard hat as he was to ride in a big dump truck, I’d say.

And the drivers!  There aren’t many men who do what they do and these aren’t the sort of trucks you drive in parades, so they were tickled pink to have someone—anyone—to show off to.

Greg, by the way, is the uncle we all think looks just like Jim Croce. I know you can’t see well enough to judge, so you’ll have to take my word for it.

And the Mesabi Range where Greg’s mine is? It’s important for a few reasons. There is, of course, all that iron ore; but it’s also the place that gave us two other good gifts: Bob Dylan and the Greyhound Bus Line.

Dog Days of February

Pilot, aka Pom Pilot 

Copyright © 2006-2007, Andrew Stark.

All rights reserved.

 

Recent dog blogging:

• Dorothy a darling photo of Charlie sleeping. Maybe we should change the cliche to “sleeping like a dog.”
  
• At least Charlie sleeps in a dog bed. Not so, with Carla’s Dougal.
  
• Pam has a list of things we can learn from a dog.
• Kim has a recipe for Tuna Brownies, a homemade treat for doggies.
• Also from Kim, photo evidence that sometimes girls just wanna have fun.
• According to Tim, people aren’t that different from dogs.
• And you helped me compile a super-duper list of dog cliches. What are we missing?
• While we’re on the subject, included in the list of dog cliches is a link to Kim’s list of Doggie Quotes and Proverbs.

I’m inviting you to participate in the Dog Days of February, too. If you post anything dog related during this month, send me the link by clicking on the Contact button in the sidebar and I’ll link back to your post in the next February dog days post. Short on ideas? Here are a few suggestions.

Just Another Cliche

How about helping me compile a list of dog related cliches? You were pretty good at coming up with dog novels, so I’m betting you’ll shine in the cliche department, too. [Updated to say that you’ve proven me right once again!]

You know the drill: I start the list, you add your contributions in the comments and I move it all up to the master list in the post, linking back to your blog if you’ve got one.

Ready? Let the game begin.

1. Dog days of summer. You knew I’d start with this one, didn’t you?
2. Let sleeping dogs lie.
3. Kim of Hireath: Like a dog with a bone.
4. Every dog has his day.
5. You don’t need to act like I shot your dog.
6. That dog won’t hunt.
7. Pam of a rustling of leaves…: In the dog house.
8. It’s a dog eat dog world out there!
9. My dogs are barking. (sore feet)
10. Let sleeping dogs lie.
11. Dog tired.
12. threegirldad: I [don’t] gotta dog in this fight.
13. A barking dog doesn’t bite. (Spanish proverb) (Also mentioned by Kim in ON)
    
14. Love me, love my dog.
15. A dog is a man’s best friend.
16. The tail wagging the dog.
17. He/She works like a dog.
18. Walk the dog. (a yo-yo trick)
19. “A dog has the soul of a philosoper.” — Plato 
20. Proverbs 26:11 (I linked the verse so you can check it out for yourself.)
21. Dorothy: You can teach an old dog new tricks.
22. It’s raining cats and dogs from Scott Gilbreath, who says he hasn’t heard this cliche since moving from Vancouver to Whitehorse. (I know from experience that the only time it rains cats and dogs in Whitehorse is right after you’ve told your visiting relatives that it never pours here like it does back in Minnesota.)
23. Rey adds two that he says have been used on him: Your bark is worse than your bite and
24. Your mouth smells like dog breath.
25. From Leslie: Like a bird dog on point. “That’s what we say,” she explains, “when someone makes a keen observation.”
    
26. Happiness is a warm puppy.~ Charles Shulz, which Leslie admits isn’t a cliche, but just the thought of holding a puppy made her smile, so she  had to share it.
27. Well, as long as we’re thinking about puppies, how about puppy love?
28. Thank goodness threegirldad returned to save us from our puppy mushiness with barking up the wrong tree and
    
29. Those who sleep with dogs will rise with fleas. (Italian proverb)
30. Also from threegirldad, a dog quote: Outside of a dog, a book is man’s best friend. Inside of a dog, it’s too dark to read. — commonly attributed to Groucho Marx
31. Karen adds a slightly different version of threegirldad’s Italian proverb: Lie down with dogs, get up with fleas.
32. Also from Karen: That kid runs like a scalded dog and
33. You lie like a dog.
34. A few more from Dorothy: The dog ate my homework,
35. Sick as a dog,
36. Once in a dog’s age, and
37. Treated like a dog, which she says is “something our daughter thinks is a good thing—because at our house, it is!”
38. From Rose and Janna at almost exactly the same time: Three dog night.
39. Kim of Hiraeth has a whole list of Doggie Quotes and Proverbs at her blog.
40. From Kim in On: Looks like the dog’s breakfast.
41. Mummymac says that in Northern Ireland they say something looks like the dog’s dinner.
42. Another from Kim of Hiraeth: The hair of the dog that bit ya.
    

Photo by Andrew Stark. Click for larger view.