We were working on a bridge in Mankato, MN. I was with Ed and Larry at the time.

We came in from work one day and were in the hotel lobby having a cup of coffee when in came a couple of gentlemen wearing slickers and carrying briefcases. If you ever watched The Long Rider Western movie, these are floor length coats, like a cowboy might wear! 

Well, they looked a little out of place and Ed wanted to know a little about them. Ed was the crew chief and senior member of our crew!

Ed asked the older of the two where they were from. 

And this fellow told him from Missouri!

Ed said, “OH! You guys are Jonny Rebs! What are you doing up here in Yankee country?”

The older fellow answered, “We’re condom salesmen!!!”

Ed asked, “Is that what you have in those briefcases?”

The fellow answered, “Yes!”

Ed asked if they give away samples. 

The fellow just shook his head no!

We would see these two fellows after work every day at about the same time, so one day I was in the parking lot doing some paperwork and the two came in.

I chatted with them a little bit and then I had to ask them, “You guys aren’t really salesmen are you?”

The older guy said, “No! We’re farmers insurance adjusters!”

This spring there had been crop damage on farms in the area and they had been sent from Missouri, where the company was, to take care of claims that had been filed!  I was grinning because of the story they had given Ed.

This fellow said, “Don’t tell that old guy!”

They told him they were men’s protection salesmen because of his Jonny Reb remark!

A couple of days later we were in the lobby again and Ed greeted the two as they came in and was telling the two that, “You know we live longer up here in the North than people down South!”  

He then asked them to guess his age? Now Ed was one of those people who had severely wrinkled skin due to a lot of outdoor exposure, I think?

The two Johnny Rebs couldn’t guess his age, so Ed gave them a little hint!

Ed says, “I fought in the big one!”  

The two stood there a minute and then the younger fellow’s eyes lit up wide! And he said, “YOU FOUGHT IN THE CIVIL WAR?”

Ed’s face went blank and then he replied, “NO YOU SMART ALECK I FOUGHT IN WW2!”

The young fellow replied, “WELL THE BIG ONE FOR US WAS THE CIVIL WAR!” 

This was the last time we saw the Johnny Rebs since they were heading back home!

We were all chuckling pretty good as Ed did look old enough to have fought in the Civil war.  But this moment was special because Ed had been trying to jab the two the whole time that they were staying there!

Eddie

Eddie and I hit it off right away when I was assigned to go to work with him. I was a little intimidated by him and he had his own way of teaching you about drilling! He would ask you what you would do in drilling a hole and when things went a little wrong and you had a problem? Then he would step in and give you some good advice on how to fix your situation and finish the job! 

After I had been with him a few years we became good friends. On one occasion we were on a job and he was asking me about my family and a lot of chit chat.

I happened to share my dad’s history and I had told him my dad and his siblings had lost their mom when they were young. I also mentioned an uncle of mine had worked for Long Year Drilling company starting back in the 30’s. He worked in Minnesota in those days and the first drills he worked on were steam powered. Then I told Ed that he worked out West mainly Nevada, Arizona, Colorado and when my dad was young he worked with him one year but didn’t like being so far away so he returned home.

I was telling Eddie this story and then he informed me that back in the early 1950’s he had started this job as a young man just out of the Navy. One of his first jobs was down by a river in Minneapolis and the crew he was on for the State was going to drill for the bridge abutments. He told me that the company that was doing the barge drilling was Long Year Drilling Co. from out West.

Long Year had all their supplies stored on the river bank in a locked container of some sort? On one occasion Eddie and his crew came to work and someone was trying to break into the container! Well, the would be thief got scared off and Ed waited for the fellow from Long Year to show up to let him know what had taken place! That driller came to work and thanked Ed for what he and his crew had done! 

I asked Ed if he could remember the fellow’s name from Long Year.

He kept thinking and finally said, “All I can remember is that, and this is going to sound crazy, but it was like he had two first names???????”

He couldn’t figure it out, but then by chance I asked him, “His name wouldn’t have been Anders Anderson, would it?”

Ed snapped his head towards me and said, “That’s what it was!!!!” 

I told him, “This was my uncle from the Deerwood area.”

Ed asked if he was still living, but I told him, “He had just passed a couple of years ago!” 

Ed said he would have loved to visit with him after all these years!

The years I worked with Eddie I did a lot of stuff to him and for him and I had great respect for him.

Eddie retired in 1991 and the last job we were on was down in Sleepy Eye, MN. It was winter and we were parting ways from the motel. He and his partner were going back to the Twin Cities and I was going up North to Brainerd.

He shook my hand and with tears in his eves he hugged me and I him. He told me that if he would have ever had a son that he would have wanted him to be just like me.

I think I choked up a little.

He said he wished he could have had more years working with me as he hadn’t enjoyed his job this much in a long time, and then he told me I must have had good parents!

When Eddie’s retirement party came around a few weeks later I wrote him a poem. He had asked me to sit at his table. Many people got up that day and spoke of him and the memories they had and then it was my turn and I was shaking so bad I couldn’t hold the poem steady so I set it on the podium and read it!

To Edward S. Pilarski

She came one day

In 59’

A mud drill

From the Failing Line

Holemaster read

Upon her side

And upon her step 

Did a young lad stride

He pulled the levers 

And shifted gears

And this he did 

For many years

In all those years

He learned one thing

You watch a master

Make the drill rig sing

For a trade to learn

One thing you must know

With your eyes you watch

And with your feet you go

That lad of old 

And I once met

And of things he knew 

Onto me he set

He’s leaving us now

And this we all know

He’ll be joining other drillers

That before him did go

As we now say farewell

To that mud driller Ed

I will think of him often

In a saying that was said

Old fashioned we say

Are the people of the past

But the truth in their lessons 

Will always last

Michael A. Novotny