My First Hardhat
This picture is from 1978. That's Bart "Rootboy" Brown from New York. One or two companies had just started making a stink about hardhats and we had a hardass supervisor named Jim Lewis who decided it was his mission in life to give me a hard time. He thought he had me when he told us at the dock that anyone without a hardhat and boots (they didn't have to be steel-toed) would be left at the dock. I pulled out that WW2 bucket and a pair of cowboy boots and he just about fell over. As you can see I made the job.
Now this is one I can comment on. I remember talking to JJ Riddle after he came in from a job on Lake Ponchartrain. He said Jim Lewis was on a rampage because he had to go out on this little mud job. JJ said " You should have seen that liitle Erikson, He was asleep on his gear bag and Lewis tore into him about having a hardhat. Kevin got up reached in his bag and pulled out a Army helmet, put it on his head and went back to sleep."
There was another story about Jim Lewis on a live-boat job. The tenders on the bow didn't know that Jim, back in the Choo-choo, could hear them talking. They were up there bad mouthing and mimicing Jim and wondering why as the dive went on, he was getting more irate.
RIP Jim Lewis