There’s Nothing Quite Like The Old Tradies

I tell you what, there’s nothing quite like the old tradies. I have been dealing with a lot of them over the last week, or so. And honestly, they have all come when they said they would and they have all done what was required of them, so I am not complaining about anyone here.

Oh, there is one who clearly doesn’t want to do the brick laying job and he should just say so, but, you know, that’s fine too. I get it.

Today, the guy was coming to look at the broken gate, to tell me how much it would cost to fix it, you know, how we take the gate down and where it needs to be delivered to, and all that, or that is what I thought he was going to do.

He arrived on time. He had a quick look at the gate. Then he went to his ute parked out the front, I presumed to get a quote book, or some such thing. He came back and handed me the end of an extension cord. “Can you plug this in for me.”

“Sure.”

He attached the power cord to his welder, put on his visor, and welded up the gate, just like that. It took 5 minutes, or so.

“How much do I owe you?”

“Forty bucks should cover it.”

“That’s great,” I said.

“This gate should have been made in Birmingham, or Italy, it would have a stamp on the bottom saying which. It was made before welding was invented.”

“I’d say it was installed around 1900,” I said.

“Yes, that would be right. It would have all been leaded, which has now fallen out, which is why these uprights are lose and now rattle." He touched several ends of the uprights. "It would have been quite an art to make one of these gates back when it was made.”

He stood back and gave it a look over. He looked at me and smiled. “Anyway, cheerio.” And then he was gone.