Powerlineman Spotlight: Bruce Thompson

Article from Powerlineman Magazine, Winter 2023.

Tell us about yourself, what was it like growing up?

I was born in March, 1957 in Hialeah Florida, Northwest of Miami. My earliest memories are riding with my dad and sister on his Harley Davidson XLCH Sportster. He would put me up on the gas tank, and I would hold onto the handlebars on each side of the speedometer, my sister Robin would sit in his lap, and hold onto me. I loved riding to the Harley shop with him and seeing all the cool motorcycles. He took me everywhere with him.

His friend had an airboat shop. We spent a lot of time there. By the time I was six, I was helping build airboats, and swamp buggies. I would hold the pipes he had bent and shaped, while he tack welded them with an acetylene torch and brazing rod. He would get mad with me if I didn't hold it still, because it wouldn't be straight. So, He had me tack welding them while He held them. That's how I learned to braze. We had chores and projects that had to be completed by the time he came home. When He got home, if it wasn't to his satisfaction, we would have to do it over. He had several sayings that I can still hear him saying to this day. 1. "If it's worth doing, it's worth doing right." 2. "Do it right the first time." I heard this next one a lot. 3. "Isn't it funny how you always have time to do it right the second time?" Thanks dad!

I loved to drive or operate everything. He taught me how to drive motorcycles, outboard boats, airboats, and swamp buggies. When I was 14, my dad was working on a 230kv transmission line about twelve miles west of where we lived. That summer I went to work with him almost every day. I would ride up and down the right of way for miles on my motorcycle. I always made it back to the crew by lunch time. My dad or the apprentice would take me up in a 110' lattice boom Hi Ranger bucket truck. After awhile, they trusted me to operate it by myself while they ate lunch. I also got to operate boom trucks.

The summer before 12th grade, My dad got me a job as a groundman on a distribution line crew, for the same contractor he was working for. My foreman was Bob Rowley.

Minimum wage was $1.25 an hour. I was making $4.65 an hour. When I told my mom how much I was making, she told me I had to pay $200 a month for room and board, I was so mad! I wasn't even out of high school yet, and she charged me room and board?! But at the end of the summer, she gave me back all the money I had given her. She told me she wanted me to know what it would be like when I went out on my own. I was able to buy a nice car with what I had saved, and what she gave me back. I learned a valuable lesson. Thanks mom!

Where did you do your apprenticeship and what were the challenges?

I did my apprenticeship with Mountain States Line Apprenticeship Training. I worked all over Colorado and Wyoming. I had several challenges. The first challenge was outside of Breckenridge Colorado. We were building a 230kv transmission line, up and over the continental divide at 13,200" above sea level. Late the day before, we were pulling in the hard line with the rope machine. A splice in the hardline hung up in the traveler and bent the arm on the tower way around. The foreman chose three linemen, and they were going to transfer the traveler to the armpit, and free up the hardline. Just before the helicopter came in to pick them up, Abner handed me his freshly poured cup of coffee, He said, "finish this kid." They loaded a hoist and some rigging into the helicopter, and they flew off to the east side of the Divide, to the affected structure. As soon as they landed, my foreman ran up the tower with nothing but a pencil and a notepad. He was going to write down the numbers of the bent steel. Shortly after he got up the tower, and before linemen could get up there, the other helicopter arrived with the ladder. It swung in, and he reached out to grab it, and missed. He lost his grip and fell 85' to his death. I was sipping the coffee he gave me, when I heard the helicopter pilot screaming, "ABNER'S DEAD, ABNER'S DEAD!" I was trying to process what I'd just heard and took a sip of the coffee; it was ice cold! Just before that radio call, it was still so hot I had to sip it. I had night terrors that I was falling for several years. I would always wake up just before I hit the ground.

A week later, our truck driver had a small crane on a low boy, he burnt up his brakes, and ran the truck up on the embankment and jumped out. The semi rolled over and crushed him. After we finished the job, the company told us it was a big success. They had anticipated killing three men on this job, we only lost two. A big success? The way we think about safety has really improved since then.

I'm almost afraid to ask, what is the wildest thing you've had happen at work?

I've had many, one that comes to mind, is that same job up and over the Continental Divide. When we poured concrete, the concrete drivers would come up the road as far as they felt comfortable. We had two 1/3 of a yard concrete pouring buckets. We would fill them up, and the helicopter would take one to the crew, and they would start filling up the hole around the footer. There were 2 ¾" ropes on the buckets. One to get a hold of it and steady it, and the other to pull the lever that dumped the concrete. The pilot would fly down the road towards me and get lower and lower, with the empty bucket about 5' off the ground. He'd slow down just before he got to the concrete truck. I'd unhook the empty one, and hook up the full one, and off he'd go.

It was the last truck load of the day. He was coming back for another load, when the bucket cleared the trees along the road, I noticed someone was hanging onto the rope below the bucket. When he almost got knocked off, coming through the trees, I realized that the pilot did not know someone was hanging onto the rope below the bucket. I took off running, waving my arms to get the pilot's attention. He was coming down the road at about 50 mph getting lower and lower as before. When he noticed me running, he leaned out, and looked below. When he saw my foreman hanging onto the rope below the bucket, he immediately climbed to prevent him from being scraped off on the road. The pilot then slowly, and I mean slowly, lowered him to the ground, It seemed like forever to lower him. None of us had noticed the rope had gotten frayed on the end and formed a loop. My foreman had stepped into the loop without knowing it, when the pilot saw the bucket was emptied, he flew off. When Cliff felt his foot being taken away, He grabbed the rope above his foot, and held on for what would be the wildest ride of his life. Most guys would have gone home, taken a couple days off or quit after a close call like that, but Cliff was just one of those tough old guys.

What advice do you have for the younger linemen?

I would tell them the same thing I tell new groundmen and apprentices: "There are two words you need to remove from your vocabulary, "I KNOW." Even if you know, say 'Thank you' instead of 'I know.'" If you say I know, you can discourage that person from ever telling you something you might not see or need to know in the future. And in the case of working with a seasoned journeyman. He might not share some tricks of the trade that he otherwise would have.

Trying to find the right work life, family life, balance will be one of your greatest challenges. Linework will afford you the opportunity to make a lot of money, and it is very tempting to do only that. If You have kids, spend as much time with them as you can, while they are young and teachable. You have a window of time with your kids, use it wisely. You can spend that time with them doing things you all enjoy, or you can spend it working every available hour of overtime, so you can just buy more stuff. In the end, if you choose the latter, you will spend the same amount of time later doing things you don't enjoy, like getting a divorce, getting to see them when the court says you can see them, or getting them out of jail. So, finding that balance that keeps work happy for you and the wife and kids is hard. Working for a good power company was a good choice for me, when my 6 kids were growing up. Set yourself up to make all your bills in 40 hours. These boom days of 5, 10s, or 6, whatever's can stop in the blink of an eye. Invest and diversify a good portion of that overtime money while you can. You're good at doing linework, get a good investment guy you trust to help you.

Is there anything you would like to say to your fellow linemen?

Yes, Thomas Edison said, "There's a way to do it better–find it." Most of the tools, and ways we do linework came from linemen, just like you. If you have an idea, pursue it. Power companies are putting in a lot of composite, and or steel poles that can't be accessed with a truck. I came up with a 2-tiered lightweight platform that can easily be installed on a composite pole, steel pole, or wood poles. I call it the StepUp. Please look at: www.effectivesp.com to see it. I believe it's a better way to work on poles with steps. Steps are good to get up there, The Stepup is needed to be able to get into proper working position. We sloped the deck you stand on, to make your ankle at a 90 degree angle while working on a StepUp. It reduces the strain on your feet, legs, and hips. Linemen that have used it say, "I'm not as tired as when I have to work off of steps." I've had a lot of help from a good friend of mine, he has helped take it to the next level. I am very proud of the craftsmanship and engineering that has gone into it. I'm looking forward to taking it around the world.

I encourage all linemen and apprentices to do the lineman rodeo's. I've had a blast doing rodeo's since 1991, I've competed in Kansas City more times than anyone I know. Every time I go back there, I run into guys I've worked with or rodeoed against. It's like a giant class reunion. Bryce Munday asked me to climb with him and Robert Zurita this year. We've had a great time at local rodeo's, LADWP and SCE Local 47, the Utah Lineman's Rodeo, and the Pacific Northwest Lineman's Rodeo.

In 1992, competing in Kansas City, I climbed with Dale Lorz. Richy Jimenez did an outstanding job as our groundman. We won first place in the Hurtman Rescue, every team from SCE brought home trophies that year. After that we were hooked. Later, Kevin Best came on the team. Even Later, I climbed with my oldest Son, Bruce II, Bryce, then with Josh Younkman, now with Bryce again.

I've had a great career, being able to raise six kids and three grandkids.

I'd like to thank some of the journeymen linemen that made me want to be the best I could be.

My Dad Bob Thompson,

John Davis,

Ray Harmon,

Bobby Helms,

Jim Mack Felts,

John Wiltshire,

Dave Jones,

Chuck Burnett, and many more.

At 66, I have competed in four linemen rodeo's this year, and in October we will compete in the International in Kansas City.