Remembering old Carl who showed me rope splicing on the riverbank

Back in 2003 on the Missouri River near Sioux City, an old timer named Carl pulled his dredge up next to mine and spent 30 minutes showing me how to splice three-strand nylon rope by hand. He just shook his head and said "son, you're gonna buy a ready-made splice every time until the hardware store is closed and your line snaps." Has anyone else had a random encounter with an experienced operator that taught you something no manual ever could?

2 comments

2 Comments

charlesj4621d ago

Took me back to growing up on the Mississippi. I had a old timer named Pete show me how to read the river by watching the way leaves floated on the current. He said most guys look at the water but they don't see it. A dead leaf spinning clockwise meant a submerged log was pushing up from below, counterclockwise meant a sandbar was building underneath. Saved my prop more than once. Those guys had knowledge that came from years of working with their hands, not from reading a textbook. That kind of stuff just disappears when they're gone.

alexlewis21d ago

Man I used to be one of those guys who thought you could just google your way through anything lol. But reading that @charlesj46, it hit me different. Never knew leaves could tell you that much about what's underneath the water. That's the kind of thing no YouTube tutorial is gonna teach you, Pete probably spent decades just watching and learning before he could pass that on. Makes you realize how much real knowledge gets lost when folks don't write it down or teach it to the next person.