Some time in the eighties, some where in N.J., a church was re-roofing their place
of worship, and some carpenters had built an A frame over the existing flat roof.
Me and a helper shingled half, and because of the winter weather, couldn’t get back
to it for a month. Then my boss called me on a Saturday night to tell me
the weather forecast for Sunday was nice and warm, I told him I wouldn’t even
consider it, we had a good laugh and hung up. Five minutes later the church minister called, would I please work the next day. I told him of course I would,
and the next morning we were up on the roof during church services, banging away.
Suddenly on the other end of the building, two guys set up a small ladder on the
existing concrete landing, and the minister walked across the unroofed half
toward us. More than a little unusual, this was a 4 or 5 inch pitched roof,
flakeboard covered by black standard roofing felt paper, with at least a quarter inch of black ice coating on top of it. I had covered a couple hundred square feet twice,
anticipating some bad weather, took the one layer off to start. He was dressed in a
suit, Sunday-go-to-meeting loafers for footwear. My helper and I both stared,
mouths wide open, could not believe what was happening. He could not have
looked less concerned, and said to me, would we take five so his congregation
could have a moment of silence?
I agreed, literally begged the man not to walk back, to use the ladder I had right
there, he wouldn’t. I wasn’t so afraid for his safety, I just didn’t want to watch
him again. I inspected the bottom of his shoes, totally smooth. We both watched
him walk back across the ice, he didn’t slip once, coming or going. If I hadn’t
seen him do this, I would have sworn it was physically impossible, no sane person
would have done it, he should have slipped at least once. There was
absolutely nothing between him and a two story drop, he should have slipped
and fell. He didn’t even look down to see where he was going, seemed totally lost
in thought, but still the most sure footed walk I have ever seen, and the most
inspiring.
I don’t expect anyone to believe this, definitely do not want someone to tell me
there must be a logical explanation, tell me I’m full of it, or otherwise think they
know who how what or why, or even prove they were still at the Holiday Inn.
memyselfnie 