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Dave: don't be fooled- I won't pay retail unless they are only game around. I'd say bargain like a ... .... But I don't want to start over .
Pawn shop or food?
When I was doing water tanks (high steel work) we had insurance rules. No work when raining, windy, thunderstorms etc.
My crew was caught in New York state, winter of 1955/56. Weather stopped work for over a week. Little pay due to weather for previous weeks. Cheap rooming house, sandwiches in rooms.
As foreman I got 75.00 dollars a week plus my commission money. Company held a few thousand in a kitty to make sure foreman paid for bad work- but my kitty was pretty big. So i kept men working on polishing the truck, cleaning stuff. Managed to keep my crew fed though we did no high work.
Near by foreman had same problem, but he played cards, bet advance wages to pay for his losings. Finally, They (foreman and crew)cranked up tractor and headed for Memphis Tenn. En route, they Hocked welding rods, hocked paint, tools, filled the tanks in Memphis with diesel fuel, "rented" (but did not prepay) a motel room for a week, left engine idling, and pawnshop tickets in cab. Few days later motel called about the tractor running day in day/day out. Old man (owner) mailed me the pawn shop tickets plus money to retrieve our stuff. Job finished, I headed south following the Foreman's route, picked up hocked stuff. When I crossed state line I was way over weight on one axle, little over gross weight. Still paying for seven men's meal out of my pocket. Hit Memphis broke, angry, tired and several thousand pounds of material short, no hock slips, over weight fine, expecting to be fired.
OLd man sent us home (at our own expense) for a week off (christmas), Then south in to TExas, a state i dearly love, to work where the sun shined- Old man also added a little money for each man. That was a rough winter. Not a man quit on me. That was my only encounter with pawn shops. I bet the foreman (who really did not care what he got) got about 10 percent of the true worth of the stuff he hocked, and I paid a high price to retrieve. Course, in defense of the pawn shop, not much market for cans of FISH OIL based aluminum paint or bags of block and tackle and used Bosun chairs.
I don't see how a man who has hocked tools ever gets back on his feet.
Pawn shop or food?
When I was doing water tanks (high steel work) we had insurance rules. No work when raining, windy, thunderstorms etc.
My crew was caught in New York state, winter of 1955/56. Weather stopped work for over a week. Little pay due to weather for previous weeks. Cheap rooming house, sandwiches in rooms.
As foreman I got 75.00 dollars a week plus my commission money. Company held a few thousand in a kitty to make sure foreman paid for bad work- but my kitty was pretty big. So i kept men working on polishing the truck, cleaning stuff. Managed to keep my crew fed though we did no high work.
Near by foreman had same problem, but he played cards, bet advance wages to pay for his losings. Finally, They (foreman and crew)cranked up tractor and headed for Memphis Tenn. En route, they Hocked welding rods, hocked paint, tools, filled the tanks in Memphis with diesel fuel, "rented" (but did not prepay) a motel room for a week, left engine idling, and pawnshop tickets in cab. Few days later motel called about the tractor running day in day/day out. Old man (owner) mailed me the pawn shop tickets plus money to retrieve our stuff. Job finished, I headed south following the Foreman's route, picked up hocked stuff. When I crossed state line I was way over weight on one axle, little over gross weight. Still paying for seven men's meal out of my pocket. Hit Memphis broke, angry, tired and several thousand pounds of material short, no hock slips, over weight fine, expecting to be fired.
OLd man sent us home (at our own expense) for a week off (christmas), Then south in to TExas, a state i dearly love, to work where the sun shined- Old man also added a little money for each man. That was a rough winter. Not a man quit on me. That was my only encounter with pawn shops. I bet the foreman (who really did not care what he got) got about 10 percent of the true worth of the stuff he hocked, and I paid a high price to retrieve. Course, in defense of the pawn shop, not much market for cans of FISH OIL based aluminum paint or bags of block and tackle and used Bosun chairs.
I don't see how a man who has hocked tools ever gets back on his feet.
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