Gordan Mikell- AKA Stump- ended up being my boss at Springdale. He reprimanded me for leaving irrigation wire not in the trench, when I didn’t have a clue what I was doing. One thing that I clearly remember was being hungover that Friday at work. I had to irrigate (with Elise and Carlos) a two-lane entrance to Cobblestone Park’s second phase of development. Clearly the Hispanic guys knew what they were doing because they had been working at Springdale for a few years. I was the new fresh meat that spoke English and looked somewhat presentable for when a client or resident of Cobblestone rode by, I could communicate.
Taking that job was a serious under-earner at $32,500 but I wanted the experience of learning how to irrigate and plant truckloads of trees and sod. I’m sure my dad was not very proud that after spending about $100,000 on college at Clemson that I was Superintendent at a freaking landscaping company after graduation.
Well, the big excavator contractor was coming behind us over the weekend and was going to fill in the trenches with his machine. I didn’t know this. He had to stop filling in the trenches because he saw that we must have run out of irrigation wire. We had the ends of the wire sticking out of the trench so we could connect a new spool on Monday and keep going.
My boss, Gordon, drove me around on Monday and said, “What’s wrong here?” I had no idea. The other people in my crew didn’t tell me that I need to tell Gordon we were stopping and leaving the wire sticking out of the trench. Gordon said, “The way we leave things Friday effects how thing go on Monday. You were just excited to run off for the weekend, weren’t you? You clearly don’t care how good of a job you do?”
Well, that was a strong statement and it wasn’t the entire truth. I liked to do a good job, but I had a lot to learn and this sure helped to shape me going forward.
