I was a “laborer” at a desolate oil-tank farm out in the mosquito-infested marsh, where a pipeline was being laid. Summertime, with head-indeces virtually always over 100-degrees. I dug ditches, and spread asphalt. Part of the job was getting down deep in the ditches that the backhow dug, and ‘tarring’ and wrapping the pipe weldings, often with mud up to my knees. Smelly, oily mud... and heat that took your breath away.
It helped pay my way through college, though.
One summer I ran a jack-hammer. I was about 17. They would drop me off with the compressor and air hoses at a gas station. We’d have pre-cut lines in the asphalt and concrete of the pump islands the day before with the diamond blade saw. I’d break up the asphalt and concrete (w/ re-bar) all day into manageable chunks that we could throw into the dump truck. We were installing “vapor recovery manifolds” for Sunoco. So there was a lot of hand digging under the island to lay pipes up to the pumps. Then there was digging across the yard and down to expose the top of the in ground tank. We had to tie in our piping to the top of the tank. Well the boss and the big boys were stuck. They couldn’t loosen the 6inch diameter plug on top of the tank. I’m a kid. I says, everyone get out of the way. I scrambled down into the ditch and stood on top of the tank with my jack-hammer. I switched the flat blade for the “pointer”. I got right to work on the stuck plug with the Jack-hammer. As soon as everyone saw what I was trying to do they panicked and ran. But, it worked just fine. Soon I emerged out of the hole holding that plug in my hand. Grown men were brought to tears.