THE IMPORTANCE OF
DRESSING FOR COMFORT

By Martin Rice
Dale Jackson Career Center – Welding
Iron Workers Local #263

Mick was a couple of hundred feet up in the air and winced as the icy wind blew in his face.  He thought to himself about how he hated working in the cold.  He'd once heard a guy say that he loved the cold.  “I can always add a layer of clothes to get warm, but in the heat you can never take enough off to get cool.”  Of course the guy was telling him that on a nice warm day.  Kind of like the people telling him heights don't bother them, they always seem to be saying that with their feet planted firmly on the ground...or sitting...on a barstool!

The first time he tried the “adding clothes” theory, he was an apprentice.  He was wearing long underwear, a down vest, and cover-alls.  He got up on the building and started climbing a column to get to the point where he would be welding.  By the time he had climbed 20 feet, it felt like he was in a sauna!  So he removed the cover-alls and prepared to start welding on a column splice.  But he couldn't weld because his hands were shaking so badly.  The wind blowing over his sweat-soaked clothes was awful!

Then he tried overalls that left his arms and shoulders uncovered and put on a coat.  Nothin' doing!  Still way too confining, plus he felt like a robot trying to walk stiff-legged across a beam. 

He even found a big difference in types of long underwear, but finally found some that weren't too confining.  One older fellow told him he wore ladies stockings when he was working on a job by one of the Great Lakes, just to keep his legs warm. 

“What if you get hurt and go to the hospital?” Mick had asked. 

“Buddy, when you're working in cold like that, you'd wear a dress if it would keep you warm!” came the response.

Now days he'd wear a thick pair of hunter's socks, long johns under his jeans, a t-shirt with flannel shirt, and a long underwear vest OVER his shirt so he could take it off easily.  Top that off with a Carhardt jacket, glove liners, and a hardhat liner for his ears and he was ready to go.  Easy enough to modify, and limber enough to move from place to place, which is what welding in the field requires. 

He'd learned early on that there just was no way to keep his fingers and toes warm.  He'd had some "Mickey Mouse" boots in the army, but it had to be about a hundred below or those things would cook your feet like an oven.  He tried electric socks and had the same experience.  The best method he found was jumping up and down like a dang crazy man to get the circulation started, and that was appropriate because he'd been cold enough before that he thought he might go crazy!

Welding in one place for a long time will just about ice the blood flowing in your body, so you gotta' get up and move around now and then, even if you are on a skinny little beam.  And it's always a good rule to have a jacket in the truck.  You never know when a cold front might move through and that jacket will be golden then.

“WHAT THE HECK???”  The screamed out question startled Mick so bad he almost fell off the beam he was sitting on.  Harry had snuck up beside him and hollered in his ear. 

“Yeah...WHAT the heck are you trying to do?  Send me into the hole?”  Mick hollered back.   

“No Mick, I though you had frozen to death from the way you were sitting there, not doing a dang thing!  But now I realize you're O.K.  You just think they're paying us to sit on our butts and daydream.” 

So much for reflections!  Mick smiled at his friend, then flipped down his hood and started welding.  That warm shower was gonna' feel real good tonight!