How high?

I have always had a respect for heights. Especially when I am the one up at the heights. I hadn't thought of that as a problem until I got into construction...it soon became a problem.

During my first 3 months as an apprentice I learned that an apprentice has to do what a journeyman tells him to do. One memorable day, I was working for "High Sheets" Heisler and he told me that we had to replace a piece of lath that had come loose. No big deal, a few minutes and we would be onto something else. Then he showed me where the missing lath was located. It was outside the 6th floor and about seven feet above the floor...if there were a floor there. But there was only open space all the way down to the floor of the inner courtyard. "How are we going to do that?" I asked. He assured me that it would be easy, all he had to do was take a plank from a nearby scaffold, lay it on the floor and slide it out of the building and then he would stand on the end while I walked out onto the end suspended over thin air and repair the lath. "Easy" he said. "Don't worry" he said. "I weigh more than you do and I won't step off the plank" 

The short story is that I did it and he stayed on the plank, though he managed to give the plank a small bounce just as I started back to safety.

I have lots of 'heights' memories and I may start writing about them. Obviously, heights had a larger than normal impact on my working life than I thought.