The School!
Paulette Elementary
Week 29
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P FOr PRIDE!I went to the site this week and had an open mind to what I would write. When I got there Mr. Beeler had gone to lunch and I didn't get to ask questions. Sometimes things happen for a reason. I had arrived on a day when the very last piece of siding was being hung. There was my story. I quickly pulled out the digital camcorder and began filming. The film to the left shows the placement of the very last piece of siding. Figure 1 below shows a cross section of the siding as it was hung. You can see that this is not a single piece of aluminum like goes in metal buildings. This siding is two pieces of aluminum with four inches of compressed foam |
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 insulation. The foam lies between the aluminum and supplies almost twice the insulation found in the modern home.Next I thought I might write about the plumbing being installed by a local company. Pipe Doctor from Norris Tennessee was out today doing copper lines and getting the site ready for the water heaters. Figure 2 shows some of their work in the water heating room. This room will supply hot water to the entire school. Maybe I could write about how many bathrooms were in the building. Pipe Doctor was installing fixtures today as well. Figure 3 shows the first sink installed at the new school. Possibly I should go with my first idea and write about the size of the building. I often give measurements in feet and inches but what does this mean to a student? I paced off 148 steps from one end of the first hall to the other.  But I didn't get to see Mr. Beeler and I don't write things I am unsure of. So I started walking around the building just looking. A young man named Dustin walked up to me and asked if I was the guy doing the website. I told him I was and he invited me to look at the plumbing his company was doing. Dustin impressed me! More than that he impressed my 78 year old father. That is rarely done. My father is a retired drill sargeant from the army. He spent many years in the Army working with young men about Dustin's age. Now what impressed us about the young man? His plumbing? His plumbing was exceptional without a doubt. Figure 2 shows their work. The plumbing was expertly done with all joints as neatly soldered as I have ever seen. You can see in the photo how neat the linear lines of their installation is. Not an inch of room or pipe is wasted. But that is not what impressed us. What impressed us was the pride this young man took in his work. He sought us out while he was on lunch to show us the work. No he wasn't asking for advertisement because I had  to ask him who he was with. This young man was truly proud of the work he and his company were doing on the site.As I left my father was yelling at me for getting his Toyota stuck in the mud. Dustin walked by on his way to lunch and Dad took a moment from his lecture to me about the cost of car washes to say..."You don't see many young people take pride in their work like that boy does." I began to rethink my whole article. I thought why not do the article about pride? When I go to the site I often find Mr. Beeler and ask him what is going on. As the superintendent of the site he has his finger on the pulse. He always gives me a list of the progress, but often I get far more. He often tells me about a material they are using and how it is better than what was used years ago. He takes pride in the building his company is creating. I stop by and see Mr. Goforth (not as often as I should) and get his take from time to time. He usually starts out with, "Did you see...?" He is taking pride in the school the county is building. Even when something has gone wrong he never hesitates to tell me. Then he takes pride in how he, the construction company or the county overcame the obstacle.  I drove up the road to stop by the grocery store and noticed a sign at East Tennessee Realty and Auction that said:Paulette, New 3br Home 1 Mile From New School $99,900. I pulled in and went inside to pick Rick's brain for a few minutes. Rick Rutherford has been in business for years in the county. Most likely he has bought and sold more property in the county than any other individual. His dad was in business for years before him. Rick told me that back in his dad's day he made money by buying, selling and trading. Rick says he does just about the same thing today. But he showed me a photo of his dad with a pair of mules he was trading many many years ago. I asked Rick what impact the new school would have on the lower end. He said that he was certain that the new school and the four lane would create a growth in that area. He pointed out something I had not noticed until now. There had been no real growth in that area for about 30 years. At that time the growth was in a few subdivisions being put in. He feels like I do that the new school will spur growth in the lower end, including business and small industry. Rick talked about what had happened in the county in the past. He offered what was happening in the county today, and what his son could expect in the years to come. I could see a pride Rick takes in our county. Bear Bryant once told his team, "Show class, have pride, and display character. If you do, winning takes care of itself." It is sometimes hard for me to understand this. I have been to several meetings that didn't go the way I thought they needed to. One  was
for the financing of this school in Nashville. I went with Wayne
Goforth and my School Board member Gerald Smith. I came out of that
meeting feeling pretty dejected. I was even pretty sure we were dead in
the water. Gerald told me that whatever the down side of the loan we
needed to lay out that to County Court and the School Board first.Mr. Goforth told me that while every aspect of the loan wasn't what we needed we should look into how to adapt our plan to use what was available to us. It was not just we had to build a school but we had to build it and be as economical for the county as possible. Again here were two people taking pride in their work. Yes we could have pushed forward. We could have built the school any way and anyhow. This in my opinion has happened in the past in our county. Instead I saw men who took pride in their jobs and decided we would make work what the State had given us even if it meant sacrifice on our parts. History cannot give us a program for the future, but it can give us a fuller understanding of ourselves, and of our common humanity, so that we can better face the future. Robert Penn Warren History may simply be that we understand what has happened in the past and use that to be certain we don't repeat those mistakes in the future. Pride may be that we understand what has happened wrongly in the past and all strive to make sure we don't repeat those mistakes. I had heard all my life that pride goeth before a fall. That I don't think is 100% correct. In my opinion pride is a virtue we should all strive towards. This is true whether you are a young man hanging plumbing or a Director Of School building a new facility. We should all strive to emulate the pride Dustin had in his work and use it to avoid the mistakes we learn about from history. |
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