When I was a little kid, my dad worked as a pipeline superintendent. He had been away from home for months on a project, and the day he finally returned, he crashed hard from pure exhaustion. While he slept, my sister and I decided to go explore his truck. We had missed him, and there was always something new to find—tools, gadgets, random gear…
On this particular day, we found these nifty canvas “sleeping bags” tucked behind the seat. They had a zipper down the front that opened from the outside, and they weren’t insulated, but we didn’t care. We dragged them onto the front lawn and started playing with them.
After a while, my dad woke up. He grabbed a tea, walked out onto the deck, took one look at what we were doing, and absolutely lost his mind.
They weren’t sleeping bags. They were body bags.
In the early 1970s, it was considered normal for workers to die on the job. Pipeline companies didn’t wait for a coroner; supervisors were required to carry body bags in their trucks to transport the deceased back to town. My dad was the one who had to put those dead workers in those bags. It was just part of the supervisor’s job description.
Dad quickly snatched the bags away and told us, in no uncertain terms, never to go into his truck without his permission again.
That was the way it was. Thankfully, things have changed. Supervisors are no longer expected to clear the dead, because it is no longer acceptable for workers to get hurt.
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