Climbing telephone poles

"Now, when you're climbing a telephone pole, there are some things you need to remember."

I have no idea when I'll need this information, but Grandpa's stories are always worth listening to.

"First, you have to secure the spikes on your boots good, because if they come off, you'll fall. Second, you have to have a good climbing belt on, because you use it to shimmy up the pole. Last, if you start to fall, you have to not grab the pole with your hands, and keep your face away from it, because you'll get terrible splinters.

When I was in the army, we had to learn to climb the telephone poles to string wires. I was in the signal corps, and the signals all travel over telephone wire. So, I learned to climb poles. But, there was this one guy, who was climbing a pole one day, and he fell. He started to slide down, and he grabbed the pole with his hands to try to stop himself. The pole is all splinters because the spikes leave these big splinters and gouges in the pole. So, when he landed, his hands were all bloody. They had to take him off to the base hospital. I don't know what happened to him. I figure that he must have needed a lot of work to get back to normal. I figure that he didn't want to go up any telephone poles after that.

So, if you're climbing a telephone pole, you have to be sure not to fall, and if you do fall, don't use your bare hands to stay away from the pole, because you'll get hurt even worse."