A guy with an early morning hod on

[Derrel]

Here is a classic August Sander photograph...the fellow in the photo is a bricklayer or bricklayer's assistant more likely, and he is wearing a hod. A hod is a trough or carrying plate for bricks or mortar or other building materials. It is worn across the shoulders and held in place by balance and by its own considerable weight when loaded with bricks or stones.

Many years ago, there was an old fellow on the Tonight Show, with Johnny Carson, and the old fellow told a joke about his first day as a bricklayer's assistant. The joke as I recall is that he showed up bright and early on his first day, and put a hod on, had another worker load it with bricks, and then he began carrying bricks up the ladder to where work would resume later in the morning, once the master brick layers showed up for work. He thought he was doing great work, and would impress his boss, but when his boss showed up at 8 o'clock and saw him with a hod on, the boss screamed at him to, "Get over here,immediately!!"

"What's wrong Boss?" he said, "I thought I was doing right by getting ahead on the bricks before you showed up..."

"Idiot!!" the boss yelled, "don't you know it's against union rules to have a hod on on a job site before 10 AM in the morning!" And with that, the 1970's audience of The Tonight Show roared with laughter....the old dude got one past the censors...

So, here is the classic August Sander photo of a bricklayer's assistant with a hod on....

http://image.radio-france.fr/franceinter/_media/diff/490033853.jpg

 

[christm]

Great photo. Nice story to go along with it too.