The Letterville BullBoard: MOST INTERESTING Happening while out on a job!

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Posted by jack wills (Member # 521) on :

What was the most interesting or scary or
unusual occurance that you might have
witnessed while out on a wall job or doing
an install or other?
For myself it could have been the time that
lightnig struck the building I was
working on 20 stories up. Another time
while I was finishing up re-painting a big
ass Theatre Marquee, in the winter no less,
and I was freezing, and I had the bucket
truck streched out to it's full 60'(to try
to reach the top!) a lady in a Cadilac, runs
into the truck and just about throws me out
of the bucket.
Maybe you have something to share or even
something as incredible as what just went
on with TBUK, down Mexico, way.
Thas'it................CrazyJack

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Jack Wills
Studio Design Works
6255 Brookside Circle
Rocklin, CA 95677
writer@quiknet.com

Posted by Mike Clayton (Member # 723) on :

I guess the one I remember the most was a job in New Gretna, N.J. I was working in a garage across the street from a local tavern. A guy and his wife got into it outside in the parking lot(both had had quite a few), she beat the crap out of him, ripped his clothes off, and left him in his underwear, lying in a puddle, bloody and beaten.

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Mike Clayton
MC Graphics
Barnegat, NJ
http://www.visualnoise.com/mcg/
mike@visualnoise.com

"Youth and enthusiasm is no match for old age and treachery!"

[This message has been edited by Mike Clayton Graphics (edited July 12, 2001).]

Posted by Don Lopez (Member # 131) on :

My most scary incident would have to be when as an apprentice 34 years ago Pat Walsh a great signwriter & I had a wall to do, the stage was an old one without an electric winch we had to winch ourselves up to the 5th floor by hand, he of course was as strong as a bull & I a 60 pound weakling..18 years old.
Pat looks at me after a while and does a double flip, we were at a 45 degree angle... he says to me in no uncertain way... "dont you f#@* let that rope go".
He ties himself of on his side then edges him self to my end and we both breathed a sigh of relief.
Needless to say I stayed away from stage jobs after that.

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Don Lopez Signs
Signwriter
Faulconbridge N.S.W.
Australia
02 4751 2158

Posted by Donna in BC (Member # 130) on :

The only thing I remember is a few months ago. I was at work alone, in my storefront full of HUGE windows. Suddenly everything started to shake and bang. I jumped out of my chair so fast as I didn't want that glass touching me if it went. I then ran outside as fast as I could.

Turned out it was an earthquake, although not a huge one. But enough to wake me up to the fact that I appreciate our earthquake insurance being in effect! I tried calling home to ensure my son was ok with the sitter. Lines were down! Then she beat me to it and called me. She was pretty freaked out, things flew around the house when it happened. She left her shoes on for the rest of the day, just in case.

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Graphic Impact
Abbotsford, BC, Canada
gisigns@sprint.ca

Posted by Stephen Deveau (Member # 1305) on :

One day years ago.
I was working on a wall sign and was up around 20 feet on some scaffolding...
paying to much attention to the work and thinking I was on ground level I stepped back to get a better view!
Over the side I go!!!! Landed hard on the ground, No broken bones but was sore the next day!

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Raven/2001
Airbrushed by Raven
Lower Sackville N.S.
deveausdiscovery@sprint.ca

Posted by Don Hulsey (Member # 128) on :

Metal smokestack. 150' tall, 10' dia. Manbasket hanging on cable 30' from top. Mild breeze.

This smokestack was designed to sway in the breeze rather than break. As it swayed opposite of the basket I had to paint the logo as I would pass the smokestack. At times I could actually see around it. That was the easy part.

Just as I was finishing the wind got up to about 30 mph. As I was letting the basket down (about 70' down, still 80' off the ground) the basket was way off to the side of the stack, when a gust of wind hit me in the back. The basket swung completely around the stack, and wound up back where it started, with the cable spiraled around the stack one full wrap. I had to try to hold it next to the stack, and walk it back around by hand. I ended up spending more time getting back to the ground than I did painting the logo.

That was one time I was really glad to get my feet back on the ground.

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Don Hulsey
Strokes by DON signs
Utica, KY
270-275-9552
sbdsigns@aol.com

I've always been crazy... but it's kept me from going insane.

[This message has been edited by Don Hulsey (edited July 12, 2001).]

Posted by Rick Sacks (Member # 379) on :

The several falls that I've taken, never did any noticable damage to my body, and the stuff got cleaned up. One time there was a wall that my wife and I were doing. Had the 22 foot plank over a mall entryway and dusted on the patterns. Megan started at one end, me on the other. We worked to the center and just as we reached each other, we leaned toward each other and kissed. The part of the incident that I find interesting was to get a photo in the mail of that kiss, taken be a tourist passing by, happening to be camera in hand and ready at that moment. She got our address from the Chamber of Commerce.

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The SignShop
Mendocino, California
"Where the Redwoods meet the Surf"

Posted by Tim Barrow (Member # 576) on :

Back in the 70's I was just startin'out on a billboard crew.We were painting on this structure that was built on a hill covered with honeysuckle or kudzu one I don't recall.To get on the sign we had to crawl under the edge on the left side between the apron & panels to get to the catwalk.after painting the sign the guy I was workin' with jokingly said Tim step back & see how this looks.Well,we were on the right side then & I looked over my shoulder & saw what I thought was the greenery of the ground & stepped off the stage which was on the catwalk.Next thing I know I'm straddling conduit light brace thats broken loose & hanging straight down,with me looking up thru a hole in the honeysuckle & vines.Almost had time to say whew,when the "t" junction broke & the sign shot up about 25 feet into the air! Seems the honeysuckle had grown up over the top of some trees thet were UNDER the right side of the sign!I walked away from that one but the guys on the crew razed me about it for at least a coupla years!

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fly low...timi/NC
is,.....Tim Barrow
Barrow Art Signs
Winston-Salem,NC
http://artistsfriend.com/signs

[This message has been edited by timi NC (edited July 12, 2001).]

Posted by cheryl nordby (Member # 1100) on :

(I like your story Rick! How romantic)
Mine would have to be one night I was at the shop very late finishing up some jobs. Next thing I know....the police were downstairs with their big ass dogs searching the building for a burgler. So I called the police and told them I am not a burgler......they told me to stay very still, until they are able to contact the police doing the 'raid'...if I went downstairs, the dogs would for sure attack me, as that is what they were trained for. You bet your bippy I stayed very still. It didn't stop me from working late tho.....guess I am just a 'midnighter'.

------------------
surf or MoJo
on mirc
Cheryl J Nordby
Signs by Cheryl
Seattle WA.....!
signsbycheryl@hotmail.com
Hitch your wagon to a star. Ralph Waldo Emerson
http://www.thisismycool.com/signs/

From sharp minds come sharp products

Posted by Cam Bortz (Member # 55) on :

I've told this one before, but it's worth repeating. When I worked in Phoenix we had a painter we called "Foolish Frank". FF could f*** up a two-car funeral. We were changing prices on a liquor-store bulletin board. The board was low to the ground, but next to the Black Canyon Freeway, which ran through a cut about 15' below street level. Our plank was on horses about 3' of the ground. I was finished and cleaning up, and had an open quart can of Chromatic 152 bulletin paint on my end of the plank. Frank was still working down on the other end, by the drop to the freeway. A cop car or something went by with sirens on, so Frank walked over to the end of the plank to look... and past the horse on his end. This turned the plank into a highly effective catapult. Frank went down three feet, and the can of Chromatic 152 bulletin paint was launched into a high, spinning, paint-pinwheeling orbit, across four lanes of rush-hour traffic, landing on the far lane. How it missed going through a windshield I'll never know. By that time I was busy ducking out of the way of the plank, which without FF on the other end, had stopped being a catapult and was now a 12' wooden club trying to cave my head in as gravity sucked it back to earth. The whole incident was a testament to the theory that life is long stretches of interminable boredom punctuated by moments of intense excitement. FF only had the wind knocked out of him (proof that god looks out for children and the terminally stupid), and we managed to load up and get out of there before the cops showed up to see who was heaving paint cans into traffic. I went on to have a shop of my own, far, far away from the Black Canyon Freeway, and Frank found himself a village that needed an idiot.

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"A wise man concerns himself with the truth, not with what people believe." - Aristotle

When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro. - Raoul Duke (Hunter S. Thompson)

Cam
Finest Kind Signs
256 S. Broad St.
Pawcatuck, Ct. 06379
"Award winning Signs since 1988"

Posted by Jerry Mathel (Member # 526) on :

Back in the 50's when I was still an apprentice, we were painting a Coca-Cola sign about 3 stories up on a 6 story building. We were using a swing stage and had lowered ourselves down from the roof.

We finished up the sign and began hoisting ourselves back up to the roof and suddenly it began raining bricks. The fire parapet on the building, where we had our hooks for the stage, was crumbling and falling down.

Thank God we had tied the hooks back to the stink pipes on the roof. We managed to lower ourselves down almost to the ground and then jumped the rest of the way. Aside from a few bruises from the falling bricks and some spilled paint we survived the incident, but I have never liked swing stages since that time.

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Jerry Mathel
Jerry Mathel Signs
Grants Pass, Oregon
signs@grantspass.com

Posted by Chuck Peterson (Member # 70) on :

My helper and I were digging holes for a sign when we saw a guy run by carrying a bag. He went behind a dumpster across the street and we could see he was throwing his clothes into the dumpster. He came out and ran off wearing different clothes. A couple minutes later there were cops everywhere and they grabbed the guy. He had just robbed the bank across the street.

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Chuck Peterson Graphics
1860 Playa Riviera Dr.
Cardiff-by-the-Sea, Calif. 92007

Posted by Adrienne Pereira (Member # 1046) on :

Years ago in Sacramento I was painting a car dealership's windows....a couple of the salesmen weren't getting along too well and started a pushing and shoving match right next to the ladder I was on...that wasn't the scary part, THAT was what was going on across the street, we could hear quite a commotion in the parking lot at the mall there...lots of cops, helicopters and such.....later I learned it was the now infamous 'Goodguys' robbery and hostage incident where several hostages and two of the gunmen died. And we were only yards away....I suppose we could have been hit by bullets.
A

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Adrienne Morgan
Splash Signs
www.splashsigns.com
"Rainkatt'on chat

Benicia, CA
707-550-4553
adrienne@splashsigns.com

Posted by Dave Draper (Member # 102) on :

Hi Heads,

Whilst working for the "big" sign shop in the 70's, they had me working on a rickety old bill board in the center of town. The boss sent me out with patterns to do the whole board by myself, and sent his 16 year old son to help me (who just sat in the truck listening to the radio).

The board is 20 feet off the ground, the top of the billboard is 30 feet off the ground.

The wind is blowing. The board is moving back and forth in the wind....like 4 feet each way. I set my ladder up on the cat walk, climbed to the top of the board to tie off the ladder. Never made it. The ladder fell over sideways.

I fell to the cat walk while my foot was tangled up between the ladder rungs.

Snap, crackel, pop went my foot in 3 places as the ladder tried to pull me down to the ground. It hit the truck and woke up the boss's son, who then had to figure out how to rescue me.

I quit 6 months later and started my own sign biz, and vowed I would never work up high on anything again.

Then last year ( 20 years later ) I'm standing 80 feet above the floor of a Catholic Cathedral working very late into the night painting ornmental designs in the ceiling vaults. The scaffold was secure, but I was all alone, (a big no no ) and its like 11:00 p.m. and I get the strangest feeling Im not alone. (The Scaffold is huge and covers half the entire church floor and has multiple levels so workers can reach every part of the ceiling and side walls, which are curved)

No there wasn't another person in the building, just me....but I was NOT the only one up on that scaffold.....unless the wind can blow things over INSIDE a building with the doors locked and shut!

I didn't even stop to clean out my brush.... I booked it out of there, almost fell trying to climb down the ladder! After that, I stopped working at 4:30 like the rest of the guys! NO MORE LATE NIGHT WITH MR.SPOOK
(I'm real sure that wasn't Jesus)

I never told anyone about this before until now....I still get the creeps thinking about that. That clumbsy poletergist could have been more careful where he was floating! What an idiot! Of course, I wasn't going to confront him about it...I just took off like one of those black men in an Abbot and Costelleo Movie who has just seen a ghost!

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Draper The Signmaker
Bloomington Illinois USA

Get To A Letterhead
Meet This Summer! See
you there!
309-828-7110
drapersigns@hotmail.com
Draper_Dave on mIRC chat

Posted by Si Allen (Member # 420) on :

Dave...was that the "Feets...don't fail me now!" bit?

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Si Allen #562
La Mirada, CA. USA
(714) 521-4810
ICQ # 330407
"SignPainters do It with Longer Strokes!"

95% of all accidents occur immediately after the words "Hey...watch this."

Brushasaurus on Chat

Gladly supporting this BB !

Posted by Monte Jumper (Member # 1106) on :

Good post Jack...I've had some interesting things happen over the years (I'm saving them for the book)but I'll share this one...

Once my partner and I were working in downtown Denver...we've got a 16 foot "pick"
on ladder jacks about 5 rungs down from the top of two 32 foot wooden ladders.At that height we had to rig to the backside of the ladder because the "Jacks " wouldn't clear the wall (I know,I know ...we was young)We'd been up there all afternoon working and were pretty relaxed when BAM...SHAKE...RATTLE...SWAY...GRAB AND "GEEZUS WHAT WAS THAT" We both went down on the plank holding on for dear life hoping the rig would hold...when things calmed down I looked over the edge and there was a guy sitting on the ground at the foot of one of the ladders...we scurried down to see what had happened. It turned out the guy was blind and missed the ladder with his cane and walked head long into the rigging. Aside from a good size goose egg he was unharmed and even had a good attitude about it.After that I've gotten in the habit of "barricading" the
rigging with step ladders or "Horses".Ya just never know when he's comin thru again

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Monte Jumper
SIGNLanguage/Norman.Okla.

Posted by Pierre St.Marie (Member # 1462) on :

My son and daughter, three tiers up installing 3' hand carved copy on a brick wall with standoffs. He's drilling, the carborendum bit snaps, he falls forward, they both push against the wall, the scaffold goes the opposite direction and.......................scaffold and the kids land in the three trees 4' behind them. Damnation, was I ever in a panic. Now the scaffold has 4' stabilizing legs.

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St.Marie Graphics
& Makin' Tracks Sound Studio
Kalispell, Montana
stmariegraphics@centurytel.net http://www.stmariegraphics.com
800 735-8026
We're chiseling every day of the week! :^)

Posted by jack wills (Member # 521) on :

Here's another one that gave me the
infamous (from the weebee geebee side of her
moon) shivers. I was out on a billboard job
that had been built as as two tiered
square stack. Imagine two squares on top
of each other with the lower tier supporting
the top one and being large enough to
provide a walkway all around for getting
the work done on the top one. Anyway all
the copy on two sides of the top had to be
changed. Having been there the previous day
coating out some spots, I hadn't payed much
attention to the structure or the lay of the
land. Now this was around Amarillo, Texas
and kind of out away from town.
On my trip back, and after setting up, and
doing most of the work, I decided to bring
up the ladder, climb up and take a look
down inside of the top square.
Well that pretty much ended my day at that
point.
The BIG square was full of rattlers, and
all I could think of after seeing all them
snakes was them crawling up my ladder.
I closed the show down real quick and got
out of there. Did not go back period.
There was just too many of them.
Thas'it..........Scared CrazyJack

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Jack Wills
Studio Design Works
6255 Brookside Circle
Rocklin, CA 95677
writer@quiknet.com

Posted by jack wills (Member # 521) on :

Hey Dave Draper,
I had a similar situation at a church down
in southern Illinois. There were lots of
spirit activty all around me in the middle
of the night but I just kept going until
sunrise when I finished my work up and left.
Didn't even bother to close the door, I
figured something would close it behind me.
...........................Jack

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Jack Wills
Studio Design Works
6255 Brookside Circle
Rocklin, CA 95677
writer@quiknet.com

Posted by DianeBalch (Member # 1301) on :

In '62 I was "helping" my Dad paint a church. He didn't have a ladder long enough so he set the 40' extension ladder on the back bumper of the '50 chevy panel body. So while he is stretched out painting the very top of the eves I get into the truck and pretend to drive. Everything was ok until I stepped on the clutch and the truck started rolling downhill taking the bottom of Dad's ladder with it. He came down the ladder like a fireman down a pole, dropped a gallon of paint and his brush! Funny, I don't remember him saying much, other than don't play in the truck anymore.

ernie

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Balch Signs
1045 Raymond Rd
Malta, NY 12020
Wholesale Routing

http://www.balchsigns.com

Posted by David Wright (Member # 111) on :

This didn't happen to me but a friend in the business, a few years back. Randy was quoting
a series of small electric cabinet signs for ATM machines in the area and was to meet the out of state contractors who were installing them. They all met at one of the locations and among them was a young man of about 23-25 years of age. He had never been on an out of shop, let alone out of state contract, but cajoled his bosses to let him go on his first one here to Michigan. As they were all surveying the site he went across the street to Burger King to pick up lunch for all.
On his way back crossing the busy street he was hit and dragged by a large truck. Randy described it in horrifying detail the results, which I will spare you, but needless to say it left him unconsious,severely injured, and after that in a coma. Randy and I have never heard anymore about him and his condition, but the image still haunts me, especially when I had heard he had just become a father.
I guess the utter randomness and destruction that happens to us sometimes leaves with me this lasting image. Perhaps that why Randy has never followed up on this, hoping to believe that a good outcome came after this.

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Wright Signs
Wyandotte, Michigan
Since 1978
www.wrightsigns.outputto.com
All change isn't progress, and all progress isn't forward.

Posted by Mike Pipes (Member # 1573) on :

Before goin out on my own, I worked at an engineering firm where we designed the aluminum framing for windows on larger commercial buildings like skyscrapers.
The firm also did Expert Witness work for litigations and had an office in Hong Kong.

I'd been with the company for about a year when I got called to the Hong Kong office and lived there a few months while we worked on an Expert Witness case.
There was an 80 story building there, wasn't one of our buildings but they called us to check it out because it had a premature failure in some of the seals meaning it was leaking.
The building owner was sueing, and we had to inspect it to find out whose fault it is.

So... I say to the boss "It's going to take us a long time to go into all those offices and check the windows."

"Oh no, " the bossman says, "We gotta go up to the roof and hang from the window washing gondola (brits and chinese call em gondolas, not stages.. hehe) and check the windows from the outside. We cannot disrupt the tennants."

Then I'm thinkin' "OK.. no big deal, I dont have any fear of heights."

Well let me tell ya..

There's nothing like hanging 75 stories above the ground on a little swing stage.
At least in my case the stage is actually secured to the side of the building, the window framing usually has a track or clips for the stage to lock into. There's no way a stage would stay in place without tracks/clips at 75 stories in Hong Kong. The wind at 900 ft above ground is about 70 MPH.

The other interesting time happened while I was in St Louis, working for that same company. We had a 20 story building going up and the bossman took me out to the job site for an inspection.
I had always wondered what it's like to have to walk across a 6" wide I-beam 250ft off the ground. Now I know.

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Mike Pipes
Digital Illusion Custom Graphics
Lake Havasu City, AZ
http://www.stickerpimp.com

Posted by Mike Languein (Member # 319) on :

Well, I've said about all I can in the Lenny Stories about my personal experiences, talk about a guy who could f*** up a s*** sandwich!

But a friend of mine was up on the very tippy top of a ladder painting with bright red and had to j-u-u-u-u-st reach over a little bitty bit more to get the last letter, instead of climbing down and moving the ladder over a couple feet, when he lost balance. He said he didn't have anything else to hang onto on the way down so he held his gallon of paint. Landed on his head. When he woke up there was the empty gallon sitting on his chest, red stuff splattered everywhere, and a bunch of cops and paramedics hanging around, they had placed tape around "the body" and some street types were busy emptying his truck for him. When they saw he was still alive they wanted to put him in the ambulance, and he insisted on taking his truck or there wouldn't be anything left of it. He won the battle and had his head bandaged for a couple months.

Cam, you have some great stories - I'd like to see more of those. Ha ha.

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"If it isn't fun, why do it?"
Signmike@aol.com
Mike Languein
Doctor of Letters
BS, MS, PhD
___________________

You know what BS is, MS is More of the Same, and it's Piled Higher and Deeper here

Posted by Dave Draper (Member # 102) on :

Jack,

I knew I wasn't crazy! I just wish those, errr it, or whatever they were could have at least pitched in and help get the job done!

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Draper The Signmaker
Bloomington Illinois USA

Get To A Letterhead
Meet This Summer! See
you there!
309-828-7110
drapersigns@hotmail.com
Draper_Dave on mIRC chat

Posted by Mark Matyjakowski (Member # 294) on :

years back we made a bunch of dorm room signs ...
every dorm room sign was numered in reverse on the back of plex and had a dry erase board and cork board in different colored frames to match floor ... about 2'x3' each.
went early one morning and started installing them ...
then realized this was the womens dorm when a few came out of the shower room ... then a few more ... etc.

not a real dangerous job
and no one got hurt
but I found it interesting
hahaha

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Designing... it's like an itch in the brain... an itch you can't scratch, that if you can figure out how to scratch it, it just itchs more

http://www.slamgraphics.com
Rochester, N.Y.
mark@slamgraphics.com

Posted by Judy Pate (Member # 237) on :

One interesting thing happened to me when I was painting a storefront sign off of my walkboard and ladders on Victory Drive in Columbus,GA several years ago. I don't usually travel this far away from home but this was for my sister-in-law and I hadn't bothered to get a permit. I was a bit nervous when I hear tires screeching up to the curbside. I turned around to see police running into the pawn shop I where I was working! Fortunately it wasn't ME they were after....a burglar alarm had went off by accident.

Once I rented a bucket truck to paint a illuminated sign that had a flex face. (Customer too cheap to buy a new one!) I got in the bucket and started it up and around..when I released the button......it just kept going around in a circle...heading straight for some wires!! I manage to flip the switch that extends the boom and bring the bucket back in so it misses the wires. Suddenly I see the KILL switch, flip it and it just keeps going. Then I started hollering for anybody on the ground to shut the truck engine off. A salesman nearby comes to my rescue. Turns out the guy who owned the truck had disconnected the kill switch. This would have been a good one for "Funniest Videos".

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Judy Pate
Signs By Judy
110 LuMac Road
Albany,Ga 31701
229-435-6824
Letterville is my HOME!
Life is like a canvas...you do the painting.

Posted by Bill Dirkes (Member # 1000) on :

I gotta couple:
My partner & I are gettin set to rig a swing stage on a 20 x 60 X-way bulletin. Board sets at the far end of a pasture off I-75 in Northern Ky. On this trip it was dry enough to drive up to the sign, after negotiating a truce with about 20 Holstein/herefords.
the top of the board is 50' up, the 40' ladder leaves some climbing to reach the 2x6 foot rail. ( I just love these rickety old permanent bulletins!) With the 40 footer up against the pole, I proceed to climb with a hand line in one hand, and my life in the other. Just as I made it to the top of the ladder and began to reach for a hand-hold to finish the climb, something jumped off the top of the post, right at my head. I didn't know whether to sh** or go blind. I opted for blind as a closed my eyes, jumped outa my boots and grabbed at ladder, pole, anything. I opened my eyes just in time to see a grey squirrel womp his arse on the groud 50' below me and take off running without breaking stride! It took a few moments to put my heart back in my chest and stop my knees from knockin'. It made for a good laugh later, but at the time I thought it was over for little Billy!
This one was much more pleasant:
Swinging on a wall in downtown Cincinnati, we overlooked a busy street about 65' down and a 150' away from the wall on which we were hanging. About midday my buddie Ron turns to look down at the street just in time to see a pretty lady pull up to the curb below us. We watch as she gets out of her car, opems both doors on the curb side of her car and begins to undress. She now has our complete and undivided attention! We watch ( of course!) as she changes into a little 'stripper' outfit and grabs a bundle of Happy Birthday balloons out of the back seat of her car. The 'strip-o-gram' lady sees us for the first time as she turns to walk away from her car. When she saw us she gave us a big wave, realizing she just put on a little show for us, she takes a bow and we gave her a hearty round of applause.
Some days workin is more fun than others!

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Bill Dirkes
Bethel Hill Signs
Butler, Ky.
Goodnight Mrs. Calabash, wherever you are.

Posted by Shawn Setzer (Member # 426) on :

I had one a few years ago, we were doing a 4'x40' alumilite sign to go above a big score board on a football field about 30' to the top, well at the time i had noone working for me so my father-in-law offered to help install, great...free labor, i thought. we get there and i then find out he's scared of heights so here i am pushing 4x8 alumilite panels 30' up a ladder.
luckily the wind was at my back, at least until the last panel, i get to the top, set the panel on top of the score board, now mind you i weigh maybe 140, and the wind changes and back i start to go, i know i got to about 45 degrees back with that panel in my hand and knew it was gonna hurt at the bottom...for some reason the wind changed again and pushed me back against the scoreboard, needless to say i changed my pants when i got back to the shop!!! from that day on i always tie off above 10'.

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Shawn Setzer
Signs by Shawn
Troy, MO
314-462-3317
kmccor01@mail.win.org

Posted by Preston McCall (Member # 351) on :

WARNING! THIS POST CONTAINS A DESCRIPTION OF GUN VIOLENCE AND SAVAGE MURDER! READ AT YOUR OWN RISK. It is graphic!

Summer 1990...very rough part of downtown Kansas City, Missouri. Noon or so and very hot day...Taco Bell windows, part of a 50 whirlwind store contract. I get the three front windows done and am standing in front of the building about 50 feet away on the driver's side on my van at the curb with my camera out, taking a picture of my new sign. Suddenly, the left window explodes! Glass goes everywhere, including my %^@&!* sign. I am mad, thinking who broke out my window sign.
Pop.pop,pop,pop! I think I hear firecrackers and two masked gunmen storm out of the TB with skimasks pulled over their faces, waving pistols. They jump in a 1980 white Cutlass 4 door and scoot right out of there, driving right past the front of my van, as I crouched down behind the door. I jump up and see them speeding off to the east and (here is the really dumb part!) I pull out my zoom lens as far as it goes and start firing off pics as fast as I can with the camera between the door and body and me behind the door. They never see me, somehow.

I run inside after they are a block away and I think how they must have shot a hole in the taco sauce barrel or something with all that taco sauce all over the place, before I see three bodies. The manager, the cashier and one customer all laying in a BIG pool of taco sauce. My brain suddenly kicks in and I realize it is blood...lots of it. Alizarin crimson! shiney and dripping from the counter... Blood everywhere...an area at least 4x12 of bright red crimson with flies already buzzing around and stone silence. Some girl has her hand over her mouth with eyes as big as hubcaps. The dead customer is on his back with the coldest stare on his face I have ever seen with blood all over the front of his chest and still holding onto his sack of tacos. The manager is laying face down on the stainless steel counter with the back of his head open from a bullet. The cashier is sprawled out over the counter looking like he tried to get over it before he expired and one of his shoes missing. One scared, young guy from the back starts yelling for everyone to get out of the store immediately as the cops are headed in fast! Some girl screams. Another girl is crying. An old guy starts yelling some prayer. I pull back and stand outside totally stunned. Some woman is asking me if they are still open..like she wants a taco right then? I hear sirens...lots of sirens! Deafening sirens.

In less than four minutes 12 police cars are there. The KC police are everywhere, instantly! The station is a block away. Everyone is in total shock. Some detective comes up to me and asks me if I saw anything. People are mulling about everywhere and traffic has stopped out in front. The fire department arrives in force! I still have the camera around my neck. I stumble on my words that I have the pictures of the getaway car and the two guys in it. The detective gently reaches for my camera and politely rewinds the film and radios off that he has camera shots. The radio suddenly goes nuts with other people calling him about getting my story. One policeman after the other all come up and start asking me questions. Some officer remarks that it looks like taco sauce, too. I recant my story about a dozen times and some detective very politely tries his best to keep me calm and defend me from the excitement of the other officers. Emergency medical people are everywhere asking if anyone else was shot. Some officer comes up to me and frisks me, thinking I might be shot. That freaks me out. I am thinking he is checking me out for a gun or something, but he finally admits he is just looking for blood. Weird city!!! A reporter corners me and shoves a microphone in my face. Some light brighter than the sun goes off in my face and I am blinded for a few seconds as I mutter something about not wanting to be interviewed right then. Some guy I had seen on TV a million times is asking me my name and address.

In what seems like only five minutes (but probably an hour) the pictures are back and one shot shows the two gunmen looking at each other in the car thru the back window, pulling their masks off and with the license plate directly beneath them, all in amazingly sharp focus and very respectable profile shots of both the felons. They really could not have posed better for me. That afternoon the two were apprehended and with the pictures, the two plea bargained it down to lesser felony charges and go to jail forever. No court and no testifying for me! The detective even calls me three or four times in the next few months to make sure I am ok. The KC police did a very professional job with the whole deal, in my opinion. Real pros. They were fast, professional and thorough.

Interestingly, Taco Bell never painted those windows again....and yes, a picture is still worth a thousand words!

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Preston McCall
2516 W 63rd St.
Mission Hills, Kansas
66208
913-262-3443 office
816-289-7112 cell

Posted by David Wright (Member # 111) on :

Damn Preston, that story wins. Everyone quit posting. I couldn't have told a better story if I made one up.

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Wright Signs
Wyandotte, Michigan
Since 1978
www.wrightsigns.outputto.com
All change isn't progress, and all progress isn't forward.

Posted by jack wills (Member # 521) on :

Well there wasn't any plans to make an
award for best story, but.......
Preston wins for sure.
No monster prize, just a set of 5 fonts of
your choice. I'll have Victor Georgiou,
contact you.
Maybe you can be the first to try out our
"Hollywood" font.
Thas'it................CrazJack

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Jack Wills
Studio Design Works
6255 Brookside Circle
Rocklin, CA 95677
writer@quiknet.com

Posted by Bill Davidson (Member # 531) on :

Yikes, I didn't think I was a speed reader, but that story captured me! slow down heart. I have one to bring us back to reality.

When i needed coated aluminum panels, I used truck-trailer siding, usualy 4'-3" by 10', baked white one side, silver the other, and nice heavy guage. My trusty '65 El Camino, with a cab high fiberglass shell. I tied off two 12' lengths of 2x12 redwood from the shop stock pile along the top, and the two New panels to them. I thought it was a good secure tie down job! but the edges were a little sharper than I thought. Rush hour on 580 near Dublin, CA. 4 lanes each way. Major truck route out of the Bay Area to Stockton. Ditty boppin along with me radio going, where is this popping noise coming from, I can see only the bottom sheet from the windshield, err NO sheet!!!! In my rear view mirror the Big Rig is falling back, in a cloud of Dust? NO, splinters!!! Redwood splinters, funny you never realize how soft redwood is till it gets ground up on concrete. OH S***, the panels, nowhere to be seen. I pull off to the side of the road. There they are, flat on the road, truck after truck roll over them. Plokity plokity. Oh NO, one peels off the top like someone turning a card over, straight up in the air like a curtain, from the slow lane, flipping, flipping, flipping....... straight down like a closing curtain at a play, in the fast lane. Not one vehicle slows. I can see the truckers on their CB's, eyes as big as dinner plates. WHAM, you have never heard anything as loud as that car hitting the bottom end of that panel in the fast lane. Plokity plokity, the other sheet is still taking it in the slow lane, then no noise, uhoh. Then WHAM, next to me is this rolled panel, rather pock maked, some gravel and redwood embedded in both surfaces. I don't think I have blinked once. But the other sheet?? hig in the air spinning again, S***, it's commin for me too!! I jump out of the way and it lands on top of the first one, right next to my truck. Traffic has not skipped a beat. I load them both up, after folding them in half, into the Back. Redwood dust fills the air, and traffic stills rolls on. When I get back to my shop, I can see the detail of the front of the car that hit the panel, hood ornament, rubber bumbers, headlights, couldn't make out the license plate number tho. next day, back for two more, this time I rolled them into the back of the truck. Two of these panels were worth about 5 bucks scrap value. Someone was looking out for this village idiot!

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Bill'n'Annie Davidson
Now in Oz, for keeps,
she always has been,
i'm new here.. & love it!
Sylvania, NSW, Aust.
abdvdsn@planet.net.au
Email me if you need some
help on a big job,
or little one....
Barramundi, Toohey's Old, and a paint brush, can life get any better!!!

Posted by jack wills (Member # 521) on :

Whoa....Bill,
Knowing you and knowing your truck and
knowing the assholes who drive the free-
ways in that area, I'm sure I can share
the adreniline rush you had during those
moments. Thank God, your here to tellus
about it.
Now, I wish I could have seen the look on
your face when you pulled back in to the
shop. I would have payed you a days wages
for that Kodak, moment.
Congratulations one more time on your new
life and marriage and I hope your wife is
as happy. Good Luck to both of you.
Thas'it .........Your friend Jack

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Jack Wills
Studio Design Works
6255 Brookside Circle
Rocklin, CA 95677
writer@quiknet.com

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