Recollections

The most taxing and challenging job was my first assignment to a company that repaired and installed television sets. At that time TV ownership was in its infancy and program reception usually came via dipole antennas mounted on the roof. In Manhattan that could mean that the TV and the antenna could be separated by many, many floors. Wire guides installed along the outside wall of the building fed the TV cable down to the customer’s apartment. The three networks operating in the city had the transmitting antennas located on top of the Empire State building, but rotating the customer’s antenna was required to achieve the best compromise for reception among the three stations. Two people using walkie-talkies were necessary in most cases to do the job, so an installation could be complicated and time consuming. One day, with the temperature hovering well below freezing, my crew leader and I had to do an installation on the third floor of a 25 story apartment house. He said to me, ” A young fellow like you should have no trouble keeping warm, so why don’t you go on the roof and mount the antenna and I’ll run the cable down the building.” I didn’t know that a young person’s blood was warmer than his, but I really had no choice, so off I went. I took the elevator to the top floor, but when I went outside I found the highest point on the roof was reached by a 20 foot vertically-mounted steel ladder. When I finally got to the top I noticed the beautiful view, but also the biting cold wind. I had to drill holes into concrete to mount inserts for the bolts that would hold the brackets for the antenna. This action is not easily accomplished in subfreezing temperatures when friction between the manual drill’s bit and socket hardly existed. I first cursed as I started drilling, and then as I got colder and more frustrated, I started praying. Finally, God came to my rescue and I finished mounting the antenna. I then pointed it toward the Empire State building and attached the cable going down to the apartment. It was too cold to stay up there any longer adjusting things. We were so high up I figured it wouldn’t make any difference. When it came time to descend the steel ladder I realized by hands were numb, so to get down I had to wrap my arms around the ladder to hold on.