It Ain't Heavy!

Working at Fitchburg Plumbing Supply when I was younger was not always a pleasant experience. My father would call and ask if I was interested in working. This generally meant that a truck was delivering a shipment. The worst shipments were boilers, SlantFin, steel pipe or soil pipe. Each of these shipments meant hand carrying many items or very heavy items. SlantFin was the worst because after unloading hundreds of 3' to 8' boxes your shoulder would be sore for several days. Breaking back a several hundred lb boiler was dangerous because you needed to break it on the hand truck but keep your balance with an item that out weighted you by hundreds of lbs. One day my father asked me to move a boiler plate from the dock to the building. This section of a boiler was on a cart with a handle. While I put my 145 lb weight into it and the cart didn't move at all. I continued to try with no luck. I went upstairs to see my father and he told me to follow him to the dock. He proceeded in trying to move it and he also didn't move it an inch. It seems the boiler plate weighted over 2000 lbs. I had the last laugh!