Having finally finished high school, I was spending the summer working my butt off to get enough money to survive my collegiate freshman year in Austin. Mom and Dad are paying for my room plus one cafeteria meal a day and tuition but all other costs and expenses were on me. Being in a small Texas ranching community, jobs were few and far between. So far, I had halter broke 10 colts for a neighbor rancher, bailed and stacked hay (in the Texas summer), worked on a seismograph crew, strung about 2 miles of barbed wire and repaired 18 wheeler truck tires. But the most interesting job was unloading cedar fence posts, not because of the nature of the work but the education that came with it.
Bob had rolled into our sleepy little town with an 18 wheeled tractor trailer full of fence posts. He saw me at the truck stop, came over walking right up to me. This guy was the epitome of the Texas cowboy. Long legged, wide shoulders and tight jeans with a tee-shirt. He looked to be in his late 20' or early 30's with a George Strait look about him. Right away I wanted to look like him.
He looked me up and down and said, "You want a job?"
I asked, "Doing what?"
He said "Help me deliver these posts out and about to different ranches, you know the area, right?"
"Yeah, I do, how much you paying?"
We agreed on a price, and set a time to start the next day.
The next morning I arrived at the local cafe/coffee shop and saw him eating his breakfast. I had a cup of coffee while he finished and we took off to start the day.
I'm still not sure which is worse, bailing hay or tossing fence posts. Most of the posts were 8-10 foot long, about 6-8 inches in diameter and weighed about 50 - 60 lbs. each. It was a long, hot day and I was tired, but the sun was going down and the day was over. I climbed up in the cab's passenger seat hoping the A/C would start soon. We took off for the 35 mile ride back to town.