Job open for literate, friendly thinker

I am doing something these last two weeks I once did all the time, but not much the last several years.

For about 30 years I owned a circa 1820 post-and-beam Cape with an El. That house always needed fixing or sprucing. And I was lucky to have neighbors, friends and family I could hire to tackle the tricky stuff (electrical wiring, plumbing), but I wanted to do as much of the home repair as possible. I was curious much more than I was trying to save a buck as a do-it-yourselfer.

My one regret was the steep learning curve for first-time work I would probably never do again. Taking 1820 post-and-beam attic space and making it a full bath including washer and dryer hookups, for example. Learning to level and install sub-flooring on top of anything-but-level 180-year old wood beams was an education. But with the guidance of experienced carpenters, I soon had a level sub-floor on which to build the new full bath.

These last two weeks I am at Camp Marlene South in Florida, installing laminate flooring on top of five rooms with new plywood sub-flooring. One more steep old-dog-new-tricks learning curve. I expected to do most of the flooring myself relying on “how-to” YouTube videos as my guide.

But our neighbor, Joe, is working at Camp Marlene South too. When I arrive Joe is finishing tiling a bathroom shower. Joe, I’m guessing is about my age, maybe a few years younger. He is French Canadian in this 55-and-older trailer community where almost everyone is French Canadian.

My paternal grandmother in Massachusetts was French Canadian. She spoke French only with her French-speaking friends, and only English with her family. Grammy came to Massachusetts as a young woman, using her fluency in English and French as a telephone operator.

Whenever I am in Camp Marlene South immersed in French-speaking neighbors — I think of my grandmother.

Joe’s English is passable; and I don’t speak French. It’s very tough, often impossible, to have a phone conversation in English with Joe. Usually there is a translator involved.

I explain to Joe I will be installing 56 boxes of floor laminate. Maybe he could help me if I get stuck or have a question? Joe nods in agreement, I think.

But the next day, without a word from me, Joe is installing flooring. He’s done this before.

Over the next several days we work as a team, side-by-side, communicating with gestures, our eyes, and mutual patience with finding the right word in English or French. Joe sees a piece of flooring he measured and cut is “too short.”

“How do you say ‘too short’ in French?” I ask. He tells me, and I see it’s not easy learning a language by ear, one word at a time.

Joe arrives at 8:00 a.m., breaks for lunch at noon, and stops working for the day at 5:00 p.m. We work without background nose. No music, no talk radio, just focusing on the work at hand.

It’s a pleasure working with Joe, a real craftsman who cares about his work. Facing an odd cut, a difficult fit, I enjoy mentally solving these problems, then seeing Joe’s solutions. Half the time we think alike. Half the time Joe has the best solution — and I learn something from him.

How Joe and I work compared with about half the “associates” working for the big box building supply store I frequent here is noticeable. How many ways can you say, “That’s not my department”? Ugh.

An old belief of mine is reinforced: Any person who can think, read, write, is curious, and friendly should have no problem finding work anywhere.

Scott K. Fish has served as a communications staffer for Maine Senate and House Republican caucuses, and was communications director for Senate President Kevin Raye. He founded and edited AsMaineGoes.com and served as director of communications/public relations for Maine’s Department of Corrections until 2015. He is now using his communications skills to serve clients in the private sector.