It was a warm spring morning as three men drove south from town in an old Dodge truck. "Clean up the old line on the road south of town," the boss had said. Today they would take down and roll up the wire. Later a crew would come back and pull up or cut off the poles.

The men, Tom, Dick, and Harry (names changed to protect the guilty), were employees of the County Telephone Co. Dick was a ground lineman or grunt. Tom and Harry could both climb, but Tom preferred to drive the truck.

The truck stopped two miles south of town where the old line started. The new line had been built on the west side of the road. The new black poles stood tall and straight. The new copper wires gleamed like gold in the early morning sunlight.

In contrast, the old line, on the east side of the road, was very old. The crooked and knotted old poles leaned in all directions. Some of the cross arms were at angles. The rusty iron wires sagged unevenly. The line had served the farmers for 30 or 40 years. Now it was time to take it down.

When the truck stopped, Tom and Dick took the take-up reel out of the back of the truck. Then they connected it to the side of the truck. It fit on the same shaft that the winch line used. It could be rotated when the truck was moving or sitting still.

Since Tom would be driving, Harry strapped on his climbing hooks. In his belt he carried only one tool, his nine-inch pliers. Harry climbed the first pole and cut the four wires, one at a time. Dick wrapped the loose ends around the take-up reel, while Harry walked to the next pole. All four wires were rolled together because they were going to a junk dealer. The truck could move down the road and roll up the wires as long as the line stayed close to the road.

Tom and Dick were waiting before Harry threw the wires down from the second pole. The pace was set by how fast Harry could get the wires down.

Harry rushed from one pole to the next. He was not one to hold up progress on a job. On top of each pole he had to untie the wires from the four insulators. Harry walked and untied as fast as he could. He was not as fast while he was climbing. Some of the poles were hard as bricks. Others were very soft because of rot. At the bad poles Harry fastened his belt around the pole before he started climbing.

Harry worked as fast as he could to stay ahead of the truck. Then he came to a pole where all the insulators were broken. When he climbed that pole, all he had to do was throw the wires off. The tie wraps could be rolled up with the wires.

On the way to the next pole an idea came to Harry. If the insulators are broken, it doesn't take as long to get the wires down. On the next pole Harry took out his nine-inch pliers. He hit each insulator hard. SMASH! SMASH! SMASH! SMASH! Then he threw the wires down. That was much faster than having to untie each tie wrap.

Since Harry spent less time on each pole, the pace picked up. The truck was moving faster. Harry broke all the insulators on the rest of the poles he climbed that morning. There was a moment's pause on some of the remaining poles. Just before he hit some of the insulators he would wonder for an instant, "What an unusual color," SMASH! or "What a strange shape," SMASH!

The crew got all of the line rolled up before lunch time. It was because Harry got the wires down so fast.