I've been working at LPS for over 30 years. I've seen and heard a lot of strange things in that time, so I thought I'd write about some of them here. I've purposely left out names and specific places in order to "protect the innocent". Well not really, I just don't want to embarrass anyone. And while I'm on the subject, if you know the names of people in these events, please keep it to yourself.

Of course if you have a story that might fit here, I'd love for you to tell me about it.

#1, How I got here. (The less dangerous job)

#2, The Baby (Modern problems)

#3, The Antenna. (The bigger they are...)

#4, The Shooting Range. (Practice makes perfect)

#5, The Armco building. (So you think you've screwed up at work)

#6, The Sound Bite. (Real is, as real does)

#7, Timber!. (Kids will be kids)

#8, TMI. (When emails get away)

#9, It's a Grand Old Flag. (More hidden dangers of snow removal)

After I graduated college I had several jobs. In 1979, I worked for a big security company repairing alarm systems in businesses . The pay was low, and I worked in Detroit. I worked days, but on the weekends, if an alarm went off and the business was closed, they'd give me a key and send me out (by myself) to find out why. The Detroit police were suppose to check it out first, but if they didn't see a broken window or a door hanging open, they wouldn't even get out of the patrol car. I never surprised a bad guy in the act, but there were two occasions where it was determined (after the fact) that there were bad guys in the building with me. All I had to do was open the wrong door, and I might not be here today. 

But the thing that really got me was that a co-worker had been off work for about a month. When I saw him, I asked where he'd been. He lifted his shirt and showed me three bullet holes in his stomach. One of our coworkers had been shot and in the hospital, and the bosses never told us. This was the point at which, I felt I was too smart to have such a dangerous job. I had done some work for a nearby school system, and applied there. They didn't have an opening for me, but they recommended me to LPS, and on sep. 24, 1979, I was hired in to A.V. Repair.

Interestingly, while my LPS job IS much safer, I did have an LPS secretary (you know who you are) point a magnum revolver at me! 

When I was in kindergarden, my teacher's name was Mrs Cocks. Part way through the year, she was replaced by Mrs. Walker. I was told that I got a new teacher because Mrs Cocks was going to have a baby. Now I don't remember her looking pregnant, but at 5, you don't notice (or even know about) such things. Of course we're also talking the late 50's here. Women would quit work as soon as they found out they were pregnant.

Today is different. Women not only work till late in their pregnancy, but they go back to work soon after. Sometimes they take it a bit too far. Several years ago a grade school teacher at LPS was standing at the blackboard, in front of the whole class when her water broke. The class was astounded, their teacher stood right in front of them and wet her pants.  I suppose it could have been worse, she could have delivered right there in the classroom.

My first boss at LPS was really into CB radio. He had a tower about 100 feet tall, and a huge antenna on top (his pride and joy). It was a big hassle bringing that tower down to work on the antenna, But being a guy who was well connected with skilled trades and vendors, he was able to borrow stuff, big stuff. So one day he borrowed a big bucket truck, so instead of bringing down the tower, he could just go up to the antenna. Unfortunately he clipped a guywire and the tower came crashing down. He quickly swung the bucket (with him in it) out of the way of the falling tower. But he had neglected to put out the outriggers that stabilize the truck, and over it went throwing him on the ground. The antenna was destroyed, the truck was on it's side, and he spent several weeks in the hospital.

Another LPS employee and I decided to Surprise him, so while he was still in the hospital we repaired the antenna and tower and winched it back up vertical again.(from the ground) It must have been really something for him coming home from the hospital to see that antenna sticking up above the trees.

Bentley high school was a large sprawling school. In fact, it was really TWO schools. Riley Junior high used to sit right next to Bentley. As the student population grew, Bentley needed more space, so they built a new Riley down the road, and connected the old Riley to Bentley making it one large school. One of the most fascinating things about Bentley was it's steam tunnels. Down below the school they ran under every hallway and classroom. It seemed like a tunnel went on for hundreds of yards and then you'd come out into a large equipment room that would connect with other tunnels that lead to other rooms. You could easily get lost down there (and I did)

Believe it or not, they used to have a shooting range down there. The ROTC students would bring in 22 caliber rifles and practice. The way I heard it, they finally closed it down after a bullet made it up through the floor into a classroom above. Can you imagine?

All in all LPS is a pretty nice place to work.  I've seen people do some pretty bonehead things and not loose their job. I used to say, "You'd have to blow up a building to get fired", but as it turned out, that's not true. 

The Armco building sits in the board office complex. It's that long building with the angled roofs, and wooden sides that sits between the board office and maintenance. Originally built as a school, it later became a warehouse, then food service, then storage, and is now used as maintenance's carpentry and plumbers shops.  

One winter night a maintenance worker was plowing snow with a wheel loader in the parking lot of the board office. He nicked a gas pipe (that was buried in the snow) next to the Armco building. The gas Jetted into the building through an air vent filling the boiler room with gas. When the boiler came on, it caused an explosion that blew off the side of the building which flew across the parking lot hitting the side of the board office. It also blew the roof off, but one end remained attached so when it came back down, it landed back where it belonged. The broken gas pipe produced a fountain of flame so high that another guy plowing snow in the bus lot could see it above the buildings. To this day if you go into the boiler room and look up at the ceiling, you can see dents where all the pipes (which hang two or three feet below the ceiling) were pushed up and hit the ceiling. Fortunately there was enough time between when he cracked the pipe, and the explosion, that he was in the other end of the parking lot when it happened. So not only was he unhurt, but even though he blew up a building, he kept his job at LPS until he retired.

Students come to LPS to learn, and it's really great when they get enthusiastic about what they're doing. But sometimes this can cause (shall we say) bad judgment?

Back in the 70's VCRs were rare, and video cameras almost nonexistent. So the fact that LPS had radio and TV classes where students could create their own videos was cutting edge stuff. It was also before people started using the term "cutting edge".

One day, I noticed a steel door in a TV and radio class room that had odd little dents all over it. Also the ceiling tiles in the room were all tore up with holes in them. As it turned out, a student was making a video and wanted a sound bite of a gun shot. So he brought in a gun and fired it at the steel door. The bullets ricocheted around the room and tore up the ceiling. He's lucky he didn't shoot himself. This is NOT the worst thing this kid did in school. I wonder how his project turned out?

As long as there have been schools, there have been students committing acts of vandalism. What has to be one of the most expensive vandalisms at LPS was the light pole incident.

The high school football fields at LPS have large light poles for night games. These (wooden) poles are 100 feet tall, and have a large array of high power flood lights one top. One night, a student took an axe and chopped most of the way through one of them. The next morning the word spread through the student body, and there was a large group of students collecting around the back of the school waiting for it to fall. They were not disappointed, down it came.  That one act of vandalism cost about $15,000 dollars in damage.

A few days later I was over at another school and noticed chop marks on one of their poles. Maintenance came out and wrapped chain link fencing around all the poles to prevent any more damage. One of the problems with doing something like this, is that the kind of mind that would do it, is also the kind of mind that can't help but brag about it, so yes, they caught the kid that did it. I wonder if his parents have it paid off yet?

When I started at LPS interoffice communication happened one of three ways. You ether called them on the phone, walked over and talked to them in person, or wrote a memo (on paper), put it in a big manila envelope, and dropped it in the interoffice mail. They'd get it in a day or two. Today e mail is king. It's easy and quick to write a few lines, slap on one or more address' and click on send. But sometimes it can go wrong in a big way.

One day an LPS employee received an email from her daughter telling about a litter of puppies that needed a home. She happened to have a co-worker who's dog recently died. So she decided to forward the email to him. Unfortunately, his email address was similar to an address that will send an email to everyone at LPS and that's just what she (accidentally) did! The puppy email went out to everyone at LPS. This was bad enough, but it was the second time this happened to her. And the kicker to the whole situation was that this email had been bouncing around the internet for about 7 years. Those cute little puppies were old dogs (and certainly already adopted) by then.

LPS has lots of people walking in, out, and around the buildings, so it's important that snow and ice be removed as much as possible. To that end, we have snow plows on trucks, wheel loaders, snow blowers, shovels, and salt trucks. The big equipment does the parking lots, but to do the sidewalks near the buildings, the custodian will use a shovel or a snow blower. Depending on the size of the building, the snow blowers range in size from small to large. One morning a custodian at a large building was clearing the snow with a large snow blower. Now this snow blower weighed in at about 300 pounds. As he passed the flagpole, he didn't notice that the rope was laying on the ground under the snow. The rope got caught in the snow blower's auger and pulled the machine (and custodian) UP the flagpole! He was able to stop it, but not before he was pulled off the ground. It must have been a sight with a big snow blower 10 feet up the flagpole!