The Story of The Day, you guys will love this
- Thread starter THALL10326
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Wood Butcher
ArboristSite Member
Thall,
Have you asked the lady how much she uses her saw? I tell you, in your position I'd be tempted to just go over to her house for an afternoon every month or so and help her out. Or else sell her a 250 EZ or something electric but it really depends on what she needs it for.
If you've never helped out an old person out of the blue like this before, it is a pretty cool thing to do every once in a while.
WB
Have you asked the lady how much she uses her saw? I tell you, in your position I'd be tempted to just go over to her house for an afternoon every month or so and help her out. Or else sell her a 250 EZ or something electric but it really depends on what she needs it for.
If you've never helped out an old person out of the blue like this before, it is a pretty cool thing to do every once in a while.
WB
Respect your elders! If that woman has lived that long operating a saw and she is not doing it in a field of captive spectators then sell her a saw and let her cotinue to keep a tidy home and possibly well heated. I am sorry but your arrogance that your position of salesman gives you the ability to grant safety apalls me!! More elderly women die each year from freezing to death than fatal chain saw accidents. Granted there are few statistics availableon elderly chainsaw use, and why because they are insignificant. My elderly customers always amaze me at there ingenuity to deal with decreasing physical abilities but with a little time they persevere and prevail. My great uncle kept a four acre garden with out power tools untill he was 92 and diedafter a day of splitting woodin feburary. And it was a garden because he gave or traded all his vegetables to family or church members. At fourteen I was 5'10" and 190lbs played football and wrestled and backpacked with the Boy Scouts and yet I could not keep up with my Great Uncle strolling his woodpatch, and he was 5'2"and 110lbs. I have several 70plus farming friends that would work your but off and still down a few beers and be up at 4 the next day. So your concern is sincere just misguided sell the lady a saw and use that concern and salesmanship to sell her some PPE.
jp hallman
ArboristSite Guru
I know plenty of seniors that run saws but have trouble starting them. Arthritis makes pulling the rope with the small handle hurt, but holding the handles OK. My own Mom and Pop would have to "team-up" on his saw to get it started. He'd put the front half of the bar under a log(not touching anything). She'd hold the saw down and he'd take both hands and pull the cord! Once started she'd get out of the way and he'd get after the cutting. He's planted in the ground now, Died last July at 92. Not from a saw accident but cancer. I believe he would have died younger if we'd have stopped him from cutting wood and other "dangerous" things he loved doing.
ned coed
ArboristSite Member
hey if that little ole lady is gonna whip yer then perhaps she will get the saw for free--just thinking out loud!
spike60
Addicted to ArboristSite
Wouldn't it be something if she showed up tomorrow and her "old saw" was an 044 Mag?
jp hallman
ArboristSite Guru
Ya' No kidding...You'll be lucky if she doesn't go home and stew about it. Then come back and whip your young butt. If I knew her I'd call her up and suggest it!ned coed said:
NovaMan
ArboristSite Operative
Definitely a touchy subject, and I'm sure Thall didn't judge based solely on age. But think of it from Thall's point of view: how would he feel if he sold her a saw and she ended up hurting or killing herself with it?
jp hallman
ArboristSite Guru
Well then, ...no returns on bloody merchandise. Quit defending the lad. Let him take the whopping he's due.
Feel, feel ,feel,blah!!! Stihl makes ez2start she wants easy start sell it. Wouldn't Thall "feel" guilty if any of his customers got injured? realistically it is the pro user who is more likely to suffer an injury due to inclement conditions, increased exposure, fatigue,deadlines,and apathy than a experienced occasional user. Being seventy plus puts her into an age category where there were few if any safetys or guards on most consumer products yet personal responsibility provided all the safety needed. Do you think she made it this far not knowing fast sharp moving things meant to cut wood also cut flesh, and cut flesh means ambulance, hospital,possible death?
bugfart
ArboristSite Operative
When you have to fit your PPE for Depends, it's time to hand the saw over to some other fool.
Maybe she has a grandson to help. If she has a son, he needs smacked.
Maybe she has a grandson to help. If she has a son, he needs smacked.
Gypo Logger
Timber Baron
The oldest person I have heard of using a saw was a character called Buzz Saw Jimmy. James Richards, his real name, came into the Yukon as a fireman in 1899. Buzz Saw was what you might call a mechanical genius.
To make a long story short he put an end to the crosscut saw as the best wood cutting tool when he built a buzz saw out of an old tractor and a Motel T Ford. The buzz saw would cut polewood into stove length at the rate of eight to ten cords per hour. It was mounted on wheels and could be moved from woodpile to woodpile.
Sometime between 1915 and 1917 Buzz Saw Jimmy fell off the machine and fell onto the saw, cutting his leg off between the thigh and the knee.
He got an artificial leg and was back in business, but a few years later fell on the saw again, but only sawed off the wooden leg.
Jimmy died in 1967 at the age of 97.
Buzz Saw Jimmy is now in Jim Robb's "Coulourful Five Per Cent", where I found this article.
John
To make a long story short he put an end to the crosscut saw as the best wood cutting tool when he built a buzz saw out of an old tractor and a Motel T Ford. The buzz saw would cut polewood into stove length at the rate of eight to ten cords per hour. It was mounted on wheels and could be moved from woodpile to woodpile.
Sometime between 1915 and 1917 Buzz Saw Jimmy fell off the machine and fell onto the saw, cutting his leg off between the thigh and the knee.
He got an artificial leg and was back in business, but a few years later fell on the saw again, but only sawed off the wooden leg.
Jimmy died in 1967 at the age of 97.
Buzz Saw Jimmy is now in Jim Robb's "Coulourful Five Per Cent", where I found this article.
John
Gypo Logger
Timber Baron
Kate Butler
ArboristSite Guru
old timers
John, cool story - thanks for sharing it.
John, cool story - thanks for sharing it.
jp hallman
ArboristSite Guru
Great! Now Jimmy's granddaughter's trying to buy a saw from Thall. "She'll be back". Better sell her the saw!
underwor
ArboristSite Operative
I used to work for a nurseryman part time who was in his mid 80's. He finally quit running the place when he was about 86 and sold out. His sister who was a little older, lived just up the street. One day he mentioned that he had taken her to the hospital as she had dropped the wheels of her lawnmower off the curb and when she grabbed the deck to set it back on, took off the ends of her fingers. This however did not slow her down. She got a new self-propelled Lawnboy the next summer and promptly took it back because it moved too slow. The dealer changed one of the belt pulleys and got a few more mph out of it and she was happily mowing well into her 90's. The nurseryman's wife quit helping him in the business when she was about 82. She was loading a b and b tree, about 80 lbs, into the back of a pickup for a 30 year old, when her hip joint gave out. She did get it loaded just before it gave.
One of my climbing instructors in the 60's was 76 and had suffered a broken back when he cut his rope with a chainsaw in the 40's sometime. Said the fall, about 70', did not hurt as bad as the saw bouncing off his chest.
Hope I am that tough in a few years when I get to that age.
One of my climbing instructors in the 60's was 76 and had suffered a broken back when he cut his rope with a chainsaw in the 40's sometime. Said the fall, about 70', did not hurt as bad as the saw bouncing off his chest.
Hope I am that tough in a few years when I get to that age.
jp hallman said:
She'll be back packing a chainsaw. I would even think about arguing with a female who is packing.
Harry K
BlueRidgeMark
Addicted to ArboristSite
My grandmother gave up her Roto-tiller at 90. She was still capable, just got tired of it. Her garden was about a half acre. She probably shouldn't have stopped - she only lived another 9 years.
Don't judge a book by its cover, and don't judge a woman by her wrinkles.
Don't judge a book by its cover, and don't judge a woman by her wrinkles.
THALL10326
The Champ
spike60 said:
haha, that would be something indeed but as luck would have it she has yet to return with anything, haven't seen her. I know I gave her no reason what so ever not to come back for we were laffing and carring on the whole time. I think maybe she had a change of heart after she got home about buying a saw and if so good for her I say. Then again she may show up yet, who knows.
I read all the posts and understood everyone's point of view. Some agreed with me and some did not and thats cool. I never said I could stop her from buying what she wanted, only that I could try to steer her away from it. If she is determind then by law I think I have no choice but to give her what she wants and thats fine. I have no problem at all with selling her a saw but I'm going to look out for her first and if I fail to convince her, then the saw, not the other way around. I come from the old school where the parents looked out for the kids and as the parents got up in years the kids looked out for them. This issue sorta reminds me of the parents that bought their 16year old a new Mustang or Corvette as their first car. A few weeks or months later they buried their kid and regretted the rest of their life. Happens way to often and coming from old school I'll stick to my guns and continue to look out for what is most important, the person, verses a sale. Some said what if it was a man, instead of a woman, to that I say makes no differance at all. Some said I'm judging people due to their age and I don't think so at all. I call it looking out for them because of their age, not judging them at all. Some say age shouldn't be a factor no matter what and to those I say reflexes slow down with age admit it or not. Saws take no prisoners, saws don't care if your reflexes are slow and it flies back in your face and your unable to over power it or too slow to react. Thats where I come in and try to prevent that from ever happening to anyone who is more prone to that because of their age. Sometime you have to do what is right verses what everyone thinks and thats what I'm gonna continue to do. She may well get her saw, I won't and can't stop her. I see no harm at all or any judging to politely try to steer her away from it. She may well tell me to clamp it sonny and say give me that saw. I'll laff and say ok, you win, lets go fire it up babycake. Thats the way I talk to all my women folk customers and they eat it up and guess what I don't care how old they are. In fact my older ladies love the flirting more than those sassy young ones,hahahaha
jp hallman
ArboristSite Guru
turnkey4099 said:
Like the bumper sticker...I saw this in Dallas, Texas. Scooting down 635 I saw a 450SL white convertable coming up on my left side...cutey blonde. I tried to "Smarm" her. She made it past me without a smile, I saw her bumper sticker then. "I have PMS, and a Handgun". I backed off.
