Tag:Easterday Construction
Pony Barn
This is another installment of Easterday Lore. Those that have been to our office have probably noticed the old barn adjacent to the main building. Internally this is referred to as the Pony Barn or the Red Barn (though it’s only vaguely red anymore). This is dates back to when this property was part of Great Grandpa (Russell) Easterday’s farm. At that time the property was at the edge of town. Back then there were a couple of cattle barns on the site as well. One had been swallowed up by nature back in the seventies and the other was replaced by a pre-engineered steel building around that same time.
By User Robert Merkel on en.wikipedia – US Department of Agriculture, Public Domain
In the early days, the Easterday farm included the property extending from the current site of Easterday Construction up to highway 10 and across 10 to 17th Road. In the 60’s, Russell’s Hereford cattle would graze in pasture at the end of Slate Street. Up until the construction of the high school in 1969, kids would ride their bikes up to the end of Slate Street to pet and feed the cattle grazing on the other side of the fence. The field behind the baseball and little league diamonds and the farmland directly north of the Culver Middle/High School are all that remain of this farm owned by descendants of the Easterday family. This is all leased property now. The working parts of the farm were sold off over time.
The Pony Barn truly housed horses & ponies in the day. Russell’s grandson, Larry Berger, had a pony housed there when he was a kid. Russell owned and rode a beautiful five-gaited horse that was also stabled there. (That was before the offices actually moved to that location from their original location in the State Exchange Bank. That’s another story for another time.) At that time, Russell and his wife, Wanda, lived at 309 Ohio Street. Between the farm and the construction company, Russell was successful and always drove a Cadillac. But as a farmer and contractor, that Cadillac was a working man’s car. There was often grass caught in the bumper and cow manure in the wheel wells from when he’d driven it through the field to inspect the cattle. And the day Grandpa Easterday bought his grandson Larry a pony… that pony road home in the back seat of his Cadillac!
Easterday Lore
I thought I would stick some “Easterday Lore” up here occasionally. Some of this will be history, some of it will be stories, some of it will be tips… ALL of it will be suspect, based on hearsay and things passed down through the oral history of the Easterday Family, blood or otherwise. We also have a page here which is more direct history of the company.
Today’s tidbit may be a tip, but I cannot personally attest to its veracity. In the early days of Russell L. Easterday Construction and Supply Company, we did a lot of construction at the Culver Academies, then Culver Military Academy. That has continued throughout the decades. One of the early projects included some copper work. New copper comes bright and shiny like a new penny. This project was an addition to an existing building and the new shiny copper stood out next to the older existing metalwork. My great grandfather, Russell Easterday, received this as a complaint and was a bit flummoxed. There was nothing wrong with the craftsmanship, but the new addition looked too new… an unusual complaint at that time. As always, there was an event coming up and they didn’t want to wait for the copper to obtain a naturally aged patina.
Grandpa talked to painters, some paint suppliers and finally contacted some old-country sheet metal workers he knew. One older gentleman who had been in the trade forever said, “Ack, that’s no problem. Just douse it down with some horse p*ss!” Easterday Lore is that this worked. I’m sure the Black Horse Troop was the source, but there was no discussion of how it was collected!
Construction Jargon Glossary
For those new to the construction industry or just listening in, here are a few construction terms you should know. Many of these are what you would here from the old-timers like Dave…
200 mile per hour tape: Duct tape
Arnworker: An Iron Worker
Blue Flue: Hangover
Blue Room: or green, depending on the color of the portable toilet on the job site.
Woodpecker: A Carpenter
Come Along: Tool used to assist in alignments, adjustments and assisting different structural members into their proper place. Sometimes referred to as a 20 lb sledgehammer.
Dirt Jockey: A Heavy Equipment Operator
Greaser: Oiler or Helper on heavy equipment (usually cranes)
Grease Pole: Hydraulic Crane Operator
Greenhorn: Someone new to the industry, trade or craft. (The old term for Newby or Noob.)
Hammerfore: This is what you tell the Greenhorn to go and get from your truck. After an unsuccessful search, they will come back and ask, “What’s a Hammerfore?” This is where they are told they may want to look for another career if they don’t know what a hammer is for…
Headache!: Look up, cover your head, something is about to fall on your head.
Hiccup: Something that has been done, but has to be redone, because it wasn’t done right in the first place.
Hot Wrench: Use a torch when a wrench won’t work… Burn it off!
IBEW: I Block Every Walkway
Ginnie Hopper: Apprentice Grade Checker
Grunt: An Unskilled Laborer generally used for heavy work.
Lead Pusher: Architects, Engineers and Designers
Modify: To alter, usually by accident, i.e. “Boss, I just modified your fender with my dozer.”
Mucker: A person that uses a shovel, rake or come-along to move fresh poured concrete.
Mud: Wet concrete. Alternate use: Drywall Joint Compound
Nail Bender: A Carpenter
Narrowback: An inside electrician as opposed to an electrical lineman.
Roper: An electrician whose main projects are residences using Romex.
Shovel Jockey: Laborer
Sparky: Welder or Electrician
David P. Osborn
We lost another long time member of the Easterday Construction family last week. Dave Osborn was a carpenter at Easterday Construction for decades. As a Merit Shop company, we ask our employees to have many skills and Dave was no exception. Along with Carpentry, he helped as a Cement Mason, Steel Erector, Welder and occasional Mechanic. Dave was a hard worker and never turned down a request.
You could count on Dave to be there giving it his all when there was a concrete pour, sweating through his sleeveless T-shirt and wringing sweat out of his red, white & blue sweat band as he jeered younger workers because, “You can’t keep up with this old man???” Well, except when there was no one around but the crew, that would be enhanced with a string of choice expletives! He was always careful to be sure no one outside the crew around before he cut loose. He was always a gentleman around women and our clients. For example, after building a custom home for the Falender family, Steve Falender wrote us a very nice letter. This is a paragraph excerpt that specifically referenced Dave:
“During framing, I decided the wall between the living room and the kitchen, as built and designed, was 5 inches too long. I asked Dave how difficult it would be to move it. His response was: ‘We’re here to do whatever you want.’ I can’t remember a single time when any of your employees or subs complained about a change.”
Dave was a farmer even while working full time in construction. As a typical farmer, he never had a good year and there was always too much rain or not nearly enough. He maintained a vegetable garden as well and was always bringing in vegetables to share with his fellow workers. Even after his retirement, he would stop by to share his bounty. We could always count on sweet corn, tomatoes or squash at least once during the summer season.
All of us at Easterday Construction have fond memories of Dave. He will be sorely missed.
NYE: 2019
Happy New Year from everyone at Easterday Construction Co., Inc.! As with most years, 2018 was full of wins & losses, successes & frustrations, progress and stagnation.
Our biggest project of 2018 was Sand Hill Farm apartments. Starting out as a bright spot in our participation in Culver’s Stellar program, it has been plagued by delays, affected by internal and external forces. Despite that, I’m pleased with the way it is shaping up and I’m proud that we can take this step towards relieving Culver’s housing crunch and at the same time bring new families to the community. All in all, we should be able to point to it as a success when this 24 unit apartment building opens in early 2019.
We also completed work on the Damore Amphitheater at the Culver Town Park. This was a project originally on the Town of Culver’s 2017 Stellar application that they were able to accelerate with the help of Patronicity. This project was completed in late Spring.
2019 also saw several projects at the Culver Community Schools. We completed a new entrance and vestibule moving the main entrance for the Middle and High School to the west side of the media center which will now serve as the new offices. This moves the offices to a more central location in the school. A second project saw renovations to the main restrooms, updating and modernizing them. The institutional block wall finish that served the rooms since the 60’s were updated with a decorative tile wainscot, with drywall above that. New toilet fixtures, toilet partitions, lights and acoustical ceiling tile all helped bring a modern look to the facilities.
A milestone event this year was accepting the State of Indiana’s Half Century Award. As near as we can determine, Easterday Construction is actually around 90 years old, but who knows if the award will still be given 10 years from now? Better to accept the half century now. I can tell you that Governor Holcomb and IEDC did a nice job with the event, making all of the attendees feel suitably honored. I want to thank my niece Nikole again for being my escort and personal photographer.
So it looks like I’ve been mainly positive here, so it’s probably a good time to close this before I find something negative. All and all it’s been a good year. I hope it has been the same for all of our friends and clients. Once again, best wishes for a Happy, Healthy, Prosperous New Year!
