Some looked the same. I climbed my first (of many) 60 footer in 1965. 12-16 kv on top 440 in the middle and 110 for distribution; I snaked thru many. That pole is probably still up. One phase at a time glovedup with plastic hard hat. Fedoras were the hat of choice back then for the brim. Bucket trucks today for the most part.
I was a lineman for Western Union Telegraph 1969-70. I was on a traveling crew of about 6 + - . We were taking down copper wire, rolled it up, then loaded it in boxcars. I worked for about 3 months out of Elko Nev. until the snow flew. Then out of Reno for awhile. Then up the central valley of California from Bakersfield to Lodi. Then up to Washington before going on strike...I never went back We never used belts unless we were someplace where we could get in trouble for not using one. We took down miles of wire a day, sometimes 3 or 4 wires at a time. The pole lines were all on RR right of ways. Mostly short poles. There were a lot of square poles in Nevada. We would go up the pole, throw one leg over a cross arm, cut the tie wire off the insulators, spin the insulator off then on to the next. The scary ones were the ones rotted off at the ground. Not knowing they were rotten when you leaned out to cut the tie wire or throw the wires off the only thing holding the pole up were the wires. The power was always on the top cross arms. We would climb half a day, then roll up the wire the rest of the day. Not very technical but we sure had a lot of fun. There were times in Nevada we would ALL leave the bar to go to work .
The Jalopy Journal
