On Tue, 27 Oct 2015 12:05:39 -0700 (PDT), True North
wrote:

One of my tougher jobs was struggling with 400 pound cubes of rubber....trying to drag them out from under the wings of a cargo ships hold and hook up to the winch for offloading. A number of the full time longshoreman disappeared....leaving a few of the reliable guys and a handful of us hired from the bullpen to do the work.

For just good old hard work, moving a computer system in the olden
days was right up there. You had a room full of "boxes" (computer
frames), the size of a commercial sub zero refrigerator, weighing up
to half a ton or so, connected with a buttload of cables about an inch
in diameter and up to 100 feet long. All of this had to be
disconnected and moved around all the while you were throwing 30 pound
floor tiles. Most of the time, the protective rings around the floor
tile cuts were gone and the saw cuts were razor sharp. Just another
little hazard to deal with.
.... and they wanted it all to happen on a shift, maybe two.


It was a white collar job tho, since we were still wearing suits.

The biggest system frames were called "Elemax" (size), the largest
thing you can get in a standard office building elevator with the trim
off of the interior of the elevator and the covers off the machine.
It still got ugly some time when the weight would screw up where the
car stopped and it wouldn't roll off.
A "Johnson Bar" was a handy tool to have.