Three months into my first brick wall I realized I was buttering the wrong side of the brick

I was at a job site up in Portland helping a buddy lay a garden wall last spring. After watching me struggle with mortar falling off for the 15th time, the old foreman walks over and says "Son, you're putting the mud on the frog side." I'd been slapping it on the smooth face like a complete rookie for 3 months straight. Has anyone else had a senior guy point out a basic mistake you didn't even know you were making?

2 comments

2 Comments

robert_roberts7d ago

Well slap me sideways. Three months of buttering the wrong side and nobody said a word until the old timer rolled in. That's just how it goes in this trade though. You figure you're doing it right until someone with dirt under their nails for 40 years walks over and sets you straight. I bet you never made that mistake again though.

morgan5126d ago

Bringing up that "nobody said a word" part really sticks with me, because @robert_roberts is right, but maybe the old timers just assumed someone else already taught you (or figured you'd learn by messing up, which is its own kind of hazing). It's a weird trade sometimes where silence is the real test.