The good, the bad, and the ugly...

[Mapleman]

"There's old tree men and there's bold tree men, but there's no old, bold tree men."

Why is it so hard for tree men to get respect? I know we receive plenty of respect from customers who've watched us perform the "impossible" and "make it look so easy." I'm talking about the way we've been perceived in the media. It seems we're just a notch above pool boys and garbage men, not that there's anything wrong with those occupations. I guess I'm thinking of a couple of films I've seen (one with Jack Nicholson) that showed a tree guy pulling up to a fancy estate in a beat up pickup, unshaven, tats up and down his arms, a cig dangling from his lips, etc, etc. In addition to that, he was diddling the customer's wife. Also, on all those programs showing extreme occupations, I've never once seen us represented, except maybe on America's Funniest Videos. And considering what we do, day in and day out, that's really disappointing.

Having said all that, I have to admit, that while some of the best people I've met were tree guys and girls, some of the worst called themselves tree men. Here where I live in Central Vermont, there's a pack of them to the south. They only seem to go looking for work when they run out of cocaine or when needing additional tattoo work. They have removable metallic signs with different company logos they switch from pickup to pickup, going back to customers with an outrageous bid that is a few thousand dollars under their previous outrageous bid one of their fellow pirates has quoted a week before. Hmmm, I guess I may have answered my own question...

Any thoughts on any of the above?

 

[chip's-tree]

Down south

Because there is an automatic distrust of anyone giving bids...and the fact that we usually get dirty in the preformance of the job....put's us somewhere lower on the food chain.
Now, I don't know how far south you meant. But here in Arkansas we have the same trouble with unethical weekend warriors that under bid you for "cash" and tell people that you were trying to rip them. they have little or no insurance, junk equipment and leave jobs that look like heck....

 

[Mapleman]

Yeah, they're everywhere. I was talking about southern Vermont, not down south. I worked Hurricane Hugo in Charlotte, NC. I decided to take a ride down to Charleston to see how bad they got hit. I pulled into a trailer park/camping area that was full of tree men. It looked like a terrorist convention. Glad i stayed in Charlotte...