-^-for posterity-^-

there’s a new dorm building going up next to our home. i stopped to watch them work while i was taking the dog for a walk.

they were pouring concrete into steel frames. the frames were tall and long and, i guess, will be used for something structural and important. the frames were spread out in an open patch of grass. they were working on the last column of the day.

there was a greenish-blue cement mixer off to one side. it had three people working at mixing the cement. they would pour in water from a large bucket and open a bag of mixture. once the mixture was finished fermenting, they would turn the mixer over and it would pour out onto a large piece of plywood. two of the men mixing the cement didn’t have shirts on. they were thin and muscular. the third had a long sleeve shirt on. he looked hot.

the next people to work on the beam filling project were two men who were incharge of keeping the concrete in a small pile and shoveling it into buckets. the one man spent most of his time shoveling and the other man spent most of his time collecting what was left over. they both wore no shirts and were covered in cement. the cement was dry in some places and it looked like grey skin.

next came the women. there were six women who formed a bucket line from the mixer to the beam. they wore long sleeves and long pants. they all had hats on and bandanas to shield them from the sun. they wanted white skin. they would sweat all day carrying buckets of cement and wear long pants and long shirts. they would cover every square inch of their body except their eyes for white skin.

the buckets were squat with a wire handle. they were not very big, maybe a gallon at most and none were filled to the top. the first women would pick up one from the ground. she would hand it to the second women who was barely in arms reach. this would start the momentum of the buckets. the second women would let gravity take its course and hold on for the ride. the bucket would swing from her right to her left. when it peaked on her left, the third lady was there to grab it. she, covered head to toe and standing in the blazing sun light, would take the bucket and let it fall. it would swing up to her left side and the fourth lady would grab it. she followed suit and it eventually reached the sixth lady. she was in charge of pouring the concrete into the steel frame as quickly as possible. by the time she was done pouring another bucket was on the way. normally, the buckets would come without interruption. they would follow one another and the women would grab, swing while holding the weight of the concrete, turn back and repeat. if someone didn’t do their job, the whole system broke down quickly. one girl had a problem grabbing the bucket. the fourth girl would swing it to the fifth girl. she was taller than the rest and wearing a pink bandana. she would miss it with her hand. the fourth girl would have to lift the bucket against gravity and try to hand it to the girl. lifting was hard work. sometimes it took two hands and the rest of the girls would have to wait. the fifth girl couldn’t have been popular.

there were other men there too. one man who stood with a shovel over the steel frame. he made sure the concrete was even. another man walked around and supervised. a couple people seemed to be on break and a crowd of students watched. the whole process was fascinating. there was something like 14 people working on filling a steel beam. to think, these beams will be the sole support for a new building and they’re being built with rubber buckets, tired ladies and a few men smoking cigarettes.