This is fun?

Construction in Reno was not all about hotels and casinos; there were plenty of times when I was sent to ‘normal’ jobs. And it was always a relief to get away from downtown and all that it represented. Plus, parking was easier!

And one of those jobs was Saint Mary’s Hospital. When I started working there, it was a small hospital, run by a charitable Catholic order. And it was during the 1980’s that this small and aging order decided that they couldn’t run the hospital any longer and so they hired a firm to manage it for them. The ‘Sisters’ were still around and would remain so, but they no longer had to worry about day to day operations.

This was when the hospital began to grow. Prices for medical care went up. Patients; all patients, had to pay their bills. The hospital was soon a thriving business and the hospital began to buy up property around the hospital in hopes of a future expansion.

At first, the projects at Saint Mary’s were quite small. Carl and I would be sent over to build a new office or add a wall in the pharmacy. These were jobs that could be handled by two people and be completed in just a day or two.

As the money rolled in, the projects grew in scope and pretty soon we had jobs that would take us a few weeks to complete and we had to bring additional crew in to help us. And it was during that time that a new man showed up one day, Bill Smith.

It didn’t take long for the two of us to become friends; especially when we discovered, during a lunch time conversation, that we both read books…lots of books. You have to understand that most drywallers did not read any more than they had to. So to find one that actually sought out books to read was a rare find indeed!

Bill, besides being a drywaller, was a cowboy. The real deal. And when I met him, he was also a new father and he lived with his growing family in Sun Valley. This part of the Reno suburbs had boomed during the casino construction times and it was now wall to wall in mobile homes. When you crested the hill that led to the valley, you were faced with what looked like the world’s largest ‘trailer park’.

It was during one of our lunchtime conversations, held while sitting on a large stack of sheetrock, that he mentioned his vacation adventures. Every year, he went down to Riverside, California and spent a week working as a wrangler for a group of horsemen on a long trail ride. 150 horsemen and their horses to be exact. These were the De Anza Trail Caballeros and most were lawyers, doctors, some dentists and a wide range of other ‘professionals’. All were wealthy enough to afford horses and the lifestyle that went with them.

Somehow or another, the conversation came around to the question; would I like to join him? There was going to be an opening for another wrangler that year and he knew the head wrangler quite well. He could get me the position if I wanted it.

Horses? I wasn’t sure about that. And 150 of them? At this time I had a general dislike of horses, a fear, and then the thought entered my mind; maybe I could get over this horse phobia by confronting it head on? That was how I had conquered my fear of heights and it was worth a try, besides, it seemed like it might be fun to take a working vacation. Yes, they would feed and pay us for the week. (That was in 1978)