Wild Bill

This is not a story about James Butler Hickock, the famous American gunfighter and lawman. Rather I share a story about someone who is unknown and will never be placed within the pages of any history book. This is a story about a man who tried to live an ordinary life, but the sacrifices he had made earlier wouldn’t allow him.

Wild Bill was a telephone lineman. He had helped to train me in the skill decades ago. After completion of training, he and I later worked on some assignments together. We shared shovels to dig 10′ holes in the ground to place telephone poles. On some occasions after work, many of the linemen gathered at a nearby liquor store or bar. He and I would sometimes be there chugging down several cans of beer.

My first impression of Wild Bill was he was a redneck hick directly from the country. As it turned out he was from Oklahoma and his country drawl gave evidence to that fact. He was in his late 30’s when I first met him. He was about 6 ft. and weighed about 200 lbs. on a muscular frame. It didn’t take me long to figure out he was nicknamed Wild Bill because he was a beast at work. He was heralded by other linemen as holding the record for stepping telephone poles at 8 minutes. For one who does not understand what this means try to imagine climbing up to the top of a 18 feet telephone pole with spikes (hooks) strapped to the bottom of your boots, drilling 14 holes (7 on each side of the pole) about 16 inches apart and below each other, then driving eleven 12 inch steps and three butt steps and plates into the drilled holes with a 2 lbs hammer, while swinging back and forth down the pole. As a comparison, the best time I could ever accomplish this feat was 12 minutes.

At first I often wondered what I had gotten myself into by working with such a character. He fussed, he cussed, was quick to call others including me a “stupid muther f#@%&?” But I tolerated him and continued to perform the job.

As days passed to become months, I began to hear the stories about Wild Bill from supervisors whom knew his history and linemen he had shared some of the events of his life. He had fought for our nation as a marine in Vietnam. He had been captured, tortured and survived. When he arrived back to the U.S. he became a lineman and an alcoholic. He struggled through his marriage and became so intolerable to his family, his wife divorced him.